FROM A SITE VISITOR: Do some people just suddenly realize or does everyone have to go through the seven steps you talk about? If so, why seven and why any exact order.
F.: To review yesterday’s pointers, in the traditional, daily satsanga approach used by most masters, all of the seven stages of re-purification are discussed over a matter of days or weeks or months, but in no particular order. Answers to queries were, and are, provided in the random order in which the issues were, and are, raised. The only difference in that approach and in the approach provided in FROM THE I TO THE ABSOLUTE (A Seven-Step Journey to Reality) is that the explications are offered in the exact order in which the stages must be transitioned (and the exact order in which they have been transitioned for centuries, though they were not previously numbered “1 through 7”).
Understand, therefore, that each of the stages that have to be passed through must be transitioned in an exact order: becoming free of the “mind stuff” cannot happen when one is still trapped in the baseness or grossness of identification with “a physical body.”
Now, to the “why seven steps” part of your question. In the limitless expanse of energy called “The Absolute,” that energy which has the ability to be aware of, if manifested, is uncontaminated, unconditional, unconditioned, unqualified, unlimited, pure, unadulterated, and unambiguous. When the consiousness manifests in the space called “a human,” programming and conditioning and enculturation soon result in it being contaminated, conditioned, impure, adulterated, and ambiguous. That contaminating process results in seven degrees of separation from Reality, in seven degrees of separation from awareness of What the consciousness Truly Is and from awareness of its original, unadulterated nature. Seven steps were involved in the-graduated-bastardization-of-consciousness process, so seven steps of re-purification must happen if the consciousness is to be restored to its natural, non-dual, no-concept, unadulterated state.
[For example, one step involved convincing you that you are the body. Another involved steps that resulted in the formulation of “your mind” and in convincing you of its exalted value. Later, you would be advised to “expand your intellect” and to “cultivate your mind” and “purify your thought-life,” as if you could actually improve a mirage or could purify a putrid bag of foul garbage. In total, seven such steps of consciousness-bastardization happened that separated you from being aware of You; thus, most persons eventually express—or at least sense—that quintessential evidence of insanity, namely, “I don’t even know who I am.”]
To illustrate the steps involved in the contamination process, consider a quart jar of water. Take the glass jar to be a space with a nervous system such as that in a human body. Take the water to be the manifested conscious-energy. Take the water to be one component that could allow what is called “the life of a human” to continue for a period (the other two being the elements and the air). To live, relatively speaking, you must have that water, but you face a major problem: people have contaminated the water so severely that, instead of being an asset, it has become a liability with the potential to kill you.
See what happened: one person passed by and added dirt to the water; another poured in a toxic, coloring ingredient that made the water look pretty but made it noxious; a “holy” person came along, judged the water to be dirty, added detergent which he believed would purify the water but, in fact, only contributed more contamination; another added salt; another poured in oil; another added poison; and another dropped some beautiful shards of glass into the water.
Now, it took many steps for that water to become as contaminated as it is. Can you re-purify that water in one step, or will many different steps have to be taken to remove all the contaminants that separate that water from its original, pure state? The process that skims off the oil will leave the shards and the dirt. Purging the detergent will still leave the salt and the coloring, so the water might appear to be “better” or “improved” but it is still contaminated. The only difference in re-purifying that water and re-purifiying the consciousness is that the seven processes required for removing the seven types of contamination from the water can be performed in any given order.
The steps required for re-purification of the consiousness, to the contrary, must be done in the exact, reverse order in which the consciousness was contaminated. For clarification, imagine that you put one ring on your finger, than another and another and another until you have seven rings on the finger. You cannot remove the first ring at the base without destroying the finger. To remove the first ring, all of the other rings must be removed in the reverse order in which they were placed on the finger.
So it is with the re-purifying of the consciousness: the steps of contaminating the conscious—energy were applied in an exact order as original illusions were upgraded or downgraded. To return to the original condition, then the contaminants must be removed in the reverse order in which they were applied. Few know that order, few can guide persons through the process, and only a very few persons will find the ones that know the order and can guide them through the complete method; therefore, only a few will ever be freed from the relative effects of the contamination. So it is. Please enter the silence of contemplation.
F.: To review yesterday’s pointers, in the traditional, daily satsanga approach used by most masters, all of the seven stages of re-purification are discussed over a matter of days or weeks or months, but in no particular order. Answers to queries were, and are, provided in the random order in which the issues were, and are, raised. The only difference in that approach and in the approach provided in FROM THE I TO THE ABSOLUTE (A Seven-Step Journey to Reality) is that the explications are offered in the exact order in which the stages must be transitioned (and the exact order in which they have been transitioned for centuries, though they were not previously numbered “1 through 7”).
Understand, therefore, that each of the stages that have to be passed through must be transitioned in an exact order: becoming free of the “mind stuff” cannot happen when one is still trapped in the baseness or grossness of identification with “a physical body.”
Now, to the “why seven steps” part of your question. In the limitless expanse of energy called “The Absolute,” that energy which has the ability to be aware of, if manifested, is uncontaminated, unconditional, unconditioned, unqualified, unlimited, pure, unadulterated, and unambiguous. When the consiousness manifests in the space called “a human,” programming and conditioning and enculturation soon result in it being contaminated, conditioned, impure, adulterated, and ambiguous. That contaminating process results in seven degrees of separation from Reality, in seven degrees of separation from awareness of What the consciousness Truly Is and from awareness of its original, unadulterated nature. Seven steps were involved in the-graduated-bastardization-of-consciousness process, so seven steps of re-purification must happen if the consciousness is to be restored to its natural, non-dual, no-concept, unadulterated state.
[For example, one step involved convincing you that you are the body. Another involved steps that resulted in the formulation of “your mind” and in convincing you of its exalted value. Later, you would be advised to “expand your intellect” and to “cultivate your mind” and “purify your thought-life,” as if you could actually improve a mirage or could purify a putrid bag of foul garbage. In total, seven such steps of consciousness-bastardization happened that separated you from being aware of You; thus, most persons eventually express—or at least sense—that quintessential evidence of insanity, namely, “I don’t even know who I am.”]
To illustrate the steps involved in the contamination process, consider a quart jar of water. Take the glass jar to be a space with a nervous system such as that in a human body. Take the water to be the manifested conscious-energy. Take the water to be one component that could allow what is called “the life of a human” to continue for a period (the other two being the elements and the air). To live, relatively speaking, you must have that water, but you face a major problem: people have contaminated the water so severely that, instead of being an asset, it has become a liability with the potential to kill you.
See what happened: one person passed by and added dirt to the water; another poured in a toxic, coloring ingredient that made the water look pretty but made it noxious; a “holy” person came along, judged the water to be dirty, added detergent which he believed would purify the water but, in fact, only contributed more contamination; another added salt; another poured in oil; another added poison; and another dropped some beautiful shards of glass into the water.
Now, it took many steps for that water to become as contaminated as it is. Can you re-purify that water in one step, or will many different steps have to be taken to remove all the contaminants that separate that water from its original, pure state? The process that skims off the oil will leave the shards and the dirt. Purging the detergent will still leave the salt and the coloring, so the water might appear to be “better” or “improved” but it is still contaminated. The only difference in re-purifying that water and re-purifiying the consciousness is that the seven processes required for removing the seven types of contamination from the water can be performed in any given order.
The steps required for re-purification of the consiousness, to the contrary, must be done in the exact, reverse order in which the consciousness was contaminated. For clarification, imagine that you put one ring on your finger, than another and another and another until you have seven rings on the finger. You cannot remove the first ring at the base without destroying the finger. To remove the first ring, all of the other rings must be removed in the reverse order in which they were placed on the finger.
So it is with the re-purifying of the consciousness: the steps of contaminating the conscious—energy were applied in an exact order as original illusions were upgraded or downgraded. To return to the original condition, then the contaminants must be removed in the reverse order in which they were applied. Few know that order, few can guide persons through the process, and only a very few persons will find the ones that know the order and can guide them through the complete method; therefore, only a few will ever be freed from the relative effects of the contamination. So it is. Please enter the silence of contemplation.
