Energy Body and Subtle Body(pranayama ..breath control systems explained...buddhist)

Energy Body and Subtle Body
Introduction

This short discussion of the Divine Body of God will of course fall short in many ways, but it is the author's wish that it will help point the way for fellow travelers.

We will start off then from normal dualistic perspectives where there appears to be an object, a separate observer, and a process of observing (in short a disconnection, separation, or disintegrated milieu) . Later we will see that this apparent physical reality or rather dualistic framework which we call our world of form and structure is based on an error of seeing; i.e., it doesn't exist as such.

Here we disclose the inter-relationships between the

1) The manifestation body, the gross body, sthula sharira, annamaya kosha, and nirmana kaya vehicle of the Buddhas)

2) The energy body, the subtle body, the light body of form, sukshma sharira, the pranamaya kosha, manomaya kosha, vijnanamaya kosha, and the sambhogakaya vehicle of the Buddhas.

3) The Universal Soul Body, Divine Body, God's Body, the anandamaya kosha, the causal body (karana sharira), vajra body, rainbow light body, the seed body, diamond heart, and the Dharmakaya vehicle of the Buddhas. Herein we will place the Divine Body, the Hiranyagarbha kosha, the Golden seed body, the tathagatagarbha the womb of all Buddha.


The Five Koshas and Three Bodies

First there will be a discussion of the five chief koshas (sheaths). Classically they are the

1) Annamaya kosha which is translated as food sheath and corresponds roughly to the physical body. It has the most dense and slow vibrational frequency. It is the realm of the sthula sharira (coarse body). This is the realm of the manifest form body of the Buddha, the nirmanakaya.

2) The second sheath is composed of the pranamaya kosha or energy sheath. It interconnects the annamaya kosha (physical body) with the manomaya, vijnanamaya, and anandamaya koshas. It is associated with the suksmah sharira (subtle body).

3) Next there is manomaya kosha or mental and emotional sheath which also is included in the sukshma sharira (subtle body),

4) Next the vijnanamaya kosha or the prajna wisdom sheath of Gnosis (transconceptional knowledge) which also is included in the sukshma sharira (subtle body). Taken together, the annamaya, pranamaya, and vijnanamaya sheaths comprise the subtle body (sukshma sharira) which is the vehicle for Buddha's bliss body (sambhogakaya).

5) The anandamaya kosha (literally the bliss sheath) which is associated with the karana sharira or causal body. In some systems there is a sixth sheath, the Hiranyagarbha kosha (which here will be discussed as existing as one aspect inside the anandamaya kosha). This karana sharira corresponds to the vajra body or diamond heart -- the immutable changeless and indestructible body of the primordial Buddha whose vehicle is the Dharmakaya.

The purpose of these systems is to consciously map out the causal dynamic interactions that occur between the mind, emotions, physical body, health, the breath, energy fields, nature, and Source so that healing as purification, activation and integration spiritually, emotionally, and physically can be expedited. Even from the most gross standpoint of the physical body all five sheaths are intertwined ( present simultaneously) in space. To the degree that they intertwine harmoniously and without conflict or tension is the degree that they exist they produce health or disease in the body/mind.
Adhi/Vyadhi

A simple example follows. Our thoughts are transmitted to the body through the nero-endocrine system. Scientists have found that these mental processes such as thoughts and emotions can not be separated from bodily mechanisms and function as all thought and emotions are involved in biochemical and neurological activities.

Here adhis (mental/emotional disturbances in the manomaya kosha or astral sheath) cause corresponding disturbances at the physical level (annamaya kosha). These disturbances are called vyadhi. This is transmitted through the intermediary of the pranamaya kosha (or energy body) causing disturbances in the prana. The good news is that we can consciously work with the body and/or pranamaya kosha to effect healing in the manomaya kosha and vice versa, we can consciously work in the manomaya kosha to effect positive healing changes in the pranamaya and annamaya koshas. It is believed that a lasting cure is only possible when the causal disturbance is completely remedied; i.e., the previously unhealthy tensions and conflicts between the bodies or sheaths have been harmonized and resolved.

Here the adhis which originate in the manomaya kosha are considered causal and primary which in turn cause physical ailments (vyadhi). These adhis can also occur in the vijnanamaya kosha and/or karmic sheath when our belief systems are out of synch with the inner wisdom karmic body and/or strong unresolved karmic forces are at play. Thus when the adhis are destroyed in the subtle or causal bodies, then the vyadhis are no longer generated or manifest. In addition there exist two kinds of adhis. One is ordinary or samaya (caused by the mind or emotions) and the other one is called, sara, which is intrinsic to a more causal spiritual malaise that can be successfully treated only through processes that affect the life style, belief system, self identification process, karma, or in general our energetic relationship that we cling to as "s(S)elf" in relationship to "Reality" i.e., through modalities which reach into the vijnanamaya and anandamaya koshas. In either case, physical disease is caused by disturbances/corruption and/or obstruction of the nadis (psychic nerves) and energy patterns which have become disrupted, distorted, and patterned into corruptive patterns causing degeneration, dissipation, dis-ease, pain, suffering, stasis, and death. Thus effective therapy is aimed at removing the source of the disturbances, opening up these blocked pathways, and rechanneling and repatterning the energy flow.
Evolution of the Five Kosha System

The five kosha model comes to us from an earlier time at the dawn of man's discovery of awareness of self, intellect (knowledge of a seemingly objective world), and individual will power. We will consider this as an indicator of mankind's adolescent stage in terms of conscious understanding and intelligent evolution. This can related to man's breaking away from the womb (mother nature), questioning and formulating his own inquiry, opinions, world view, concepts, and beliefs, and then attempting an autonomous existence as in individuation. This marks man's age of adolescence where critical, rebellious, and creative thought dominate. Here life is broken down into its constituent parts (samkhya). In that stage of evolution it would be correct to reduce the koshas into:

Annamaya kosha: The gross or coarse physical body (Sthula sharira)

The pranamaya kosha: as consisting of the pranas as they manifest in the body (prana vayu, apana vayu, udana vayu, vyana vayu, and samana vayu) which animate all the activities of the gross physical body underlying the functions of the five karma indriyas ("organs of action") according to Ayurvedic frameworks.

Manomaya kosha: comprised of the five jnana indriyas (organs of knowledge, i.e. ears, nose, skin, eyes, and tongue) which, in association with the innate mind, or citta (or the sixth sense organ), all together creates manas, or the lower mind.

Vijnanamaya kosha: comprised of the ahamkara (ego) and buddhi (intellect) which when harmoniously combined created a higher level of intelligent functioning (vijnana) or the higher mind.

These last three classically formed the realm of the subtle body (sukshma sharira) or subtle body and is also the realm where the chakras function.

The anandamaya kosha (literally bliss sheath) then was defined as independent from these four other bodies however capable of linking to them in manifest existence. It is independent of the patternings and distortions of the ego and individual will. Rather it is the transpersonal gate available here and now, the innermost sheath and pathway to the causal universal that contains the causal body (karana sharira).

That is the classical breakdown, give or take. But for the spiritual practitioner who is beyond the adolescent stage another model is more applicable. The spiritual adept has transmuted and purified his body, energy system, mind, emotions, will, and intellect. He/she has integrated it with divine will and universal intelligence hence the old model that is applied to the adolescent man no longer applies to the adult (the yogic practitioner).
The Connection between Breath, Prana, and the Three Bodies

As all five sheaths intertwine and are simultaneously present their energetic matrix and relationship itself (the energetics of their energetics) can be mapped out in the yogic practitioner with a non-classical model. In order to map out these common interactions utilizing we will draw a diagram of circles within circles ending at the inner most center which is the primal seed (bindu). In this evolutionary diagram the center most core (hridayam) found within the anandamaya kosha is the natural unconditioned all encompassing Mind which manifests as the union of form and emptiness (shakti/shiva). When it is obscured and defiled by old karma the center is black and the mind is disturbed. When the karma is cleared out, the individual mind and will has merged with Universal Source (Shakti's mate) and is naturally clear and undisturbed.

Assuming that the prana (energy) is reflected in the breath and that in turn the prana can be changed by the breath, we can draw the gross body as the outer most superficial layer. Going inward, the next layer is the breath. Then going even further inward the next layer is the harmonized/mature mind and emotional body, the next layer inward would be the wisdom body (the transmuted/mature vijnanamaya kosha), and the last innermost layer is the body purified from karma (the unconditioned eternal beginningless creative Source manifesting as Creativity (Shiva/Shakti).

1) So starting again at the most dense and coarse, the outer most circle can be represented by the annamaya kosha. Here we will call it simply the earthly body (sthula sharira). It's vibrations is most gross and slow. Again even here all other sheaths and bodies interoperate and are present to an extent. Their quality of interaction is reflected in the breath.

2) The next layer in, is the subtle body (sukshma sharira) or energy body which is comprised and shaped by the combined interactive dynamics of the pranamaya, manomaya, and vijnanamaya koshas. Again here all other sheaths and bodies interoperate and are present to an extent. The quality of interaction between the mind, emotions, physical body, and energy body are also reflected in the breath.

3) Next again is the causal body (karana sharira) in the center of the circles, which is normally obfuscated by karma which when not purified in turn imprisons the organism to duality and suffering. When the karma is dispelled and loosened, then this center represents unconditional reality -- the natural unconditioned primal unspoiled pure citta or Siva consciousness (reflected in the world of form to the senses as shakti). This relationship is also reflected in the breath or its absence.

The value in this map is to lay out a conscious pathway for techniques that link harmoniously all three bodies. Here our platform will start at the energetic matrix of the all pervading causal matrix -- the Mother of Creativity existing as an aspect of the causal body. This focus will thus focus on the pure undiluted instructor/teaching from the beginningless beginning. Next we will investigate how Pure Creativity interacts with the subtle body, and lastly to the gross body.

All three bodies are reflected by the breath and are accessed by it. So according to this map, it is the breath that intermediates between the subtle and the causal body as well as between the physical body and the subtle body. In the latter the breath reflects the qualitative interaction of the five prana vayus and the six sense organs (manas being the sixth).

In turn a yogi investigates thoroughly energetic components (prana) of the emotions/thoughts which were classically the province of the pranamaya and manomaya koshas. Through such inner explorations the yogi then discovers how the mental and emotional sheaths transmit energy to the physical body via the pranamaya kosha which in turn alters the breath, as well as to alter the breath to effect change in the mental/emotional states. The yogi discovers how concepts, belief systems, intellectual processes, and acts of individual will power that exist outside of his natural alliance with siva/shakti will distort the breath. In fact each thought and our attitude in general) as our stance in life that is ordered by any limited identification affect the breath and our energy levels. So through this map we can re-establish a natural connection with the innate Self -- an innate intelligent and creative order and as such aligning to this regulator, we come into an authentic, evolved and fully functional type of self regulation

So here in this complete model we have identified the breath as a causal agent/method in effecting and monitoring both the physical and the mental/emotional processes. As such this observation allows the yogi to alter such activities for health and spiritual function.

As the breath and prana affects the mind and emotions, it also affects our beliefs and karma, just as our judgments, beliefs, and karma effect the mind, emotions, prana, breath, and physical body. Here the yogi one distinguishes between karmic breathing and the wisdom breath (jnana prana). here the nadis are purified and opened, then the subtle energetics that flow in the ida and pingala nadis are harmonized and synchronized activating the evolutionary potential (kundalini). Then the circuitries are further integrated and aligned with the primal source residing in the karana sharira Such a conscious relationship between mind, body, breath, emotions, creation (as manifest in all living systems in nature), and beginningless Source (Divine creativity) becomes a continuous conscious dynamic integrated in All our Relations.

So as a spiritual practice, wise yogis use these interactions to destroy karma and thus gain liberation. The above is a short outline of these processes. What we will describe further is the process of refining the breath and prana, activating the subtle and causal bodies, and operating consciously from there with full awareness, thus ridding ourselves from dualistic illusion.

Although we all started with beginningless Source, we will start our brief discussion here with the gross or coarse body called the sthula sharira. As shown above this corresponds to the annamaya kosha of Ayurveda and the Nirmanakaya (or form body of the Buddha).


The Manifestation Body, the Gross Body, Sthula Sharira, Annamaya kosha, and Nirmana Kaya (vehicle of the Buddhas),



The salient feature of these bodies is that the outer bodies are intimately connected with the core/heart body (causal body) at all times to a lesser or greater extent. The point of yoga is to open up the pathways of these connections (whose channels have become obstructed) and to activate and harmonize these networks and circuitry. Then the human body becomes the manifestation body (nirmanakaya) reflecting the undiluted teachings of the primordial Buddha (dharmakaya) in body, speech, and mind.

So it is here again that all the koshas and the three bodies either act in harmony and are activated and integrated (in yoga) or they are disconnected (in a relative sense). When these connections are obstructed or unempowered then stress, conflict, confusion, lack of internal self regulation, lack of inspiration, disease (mental or physical vyadhis) and other maladies are more often present. When the sthula sharira becomes entirely disconnected from the causal body, then physical death occurs (the nirmanakaya form body of that particular incarnation of the Buddha disintegrates. This alters the subtle body which either itself may also disintegrate or else if it has become spiritually matured and attuned to the causal body's influence, it will continue on it's own in an altered state (bardo) without the sthula sharira.

Here it is yoga which makes the connections opening up and inspiring the lower two bodies to light and spirit. Yoga binds us all together with the common unconditioned heart/core center which is eternal -- the central axis of the universe found deep in the anandamaya kosha.

Since this is an intertwined system, all other bodies have pathways to the other. The energetics of the physical body are influenced by the more subtle energetics of the energy body (sukshma sharira) as well as the quality of the pathways with the causal body (karana sharira). Vice versa, the physical body (sthula sharira) is influenced by its relationship with the subtle and causal body.

In other words there exists a two way street between all three bodies (or all five koshas) and thus such activities as hatha yoga asana practice, breath work, certain herbs, drugs, and other activities on what is considered the the physical level can influence the subtle body and one's connections to the infinite unconditioned (causal body). Indeed there are many physical practices (remember nothing is entirely physical but all the bodies simultaneously coexist in space) which make these pathways whole and aligned. There are types of physical movements and breathing techniques that clear out the nadis, activate the circuitry, and remove karma creating yoga, the gross breath being a gross representation of the interaction between the energy body and the physical/coarse body.

So in asana, pranayama, bandha, mudra, visualization, concentration, and pratyhara practices do we work the gross to activate and realize the subtle body and causal bodies, or do we call on the causal and subtle bodies to activate the physical -- manifest the Buddha nature in Buddha activity. The answer is both, and at the same time.

When young and just beginning we use the hatha yoga practices (trul khor in Tibetan) to become aware of the subtle energetics, to the clean the nadis (energy channels), enliven and activate the dormant evolutionary circuits, and align more harmoniously in a vital way the yantras of the three bodies (which when united form one) utilizing movement, breath, concentration (dharana), and awareness. This two way street activates and purifies the subtle body which acts increasingly consciously as the wise director and organizer of the body and on the otter hand it also purifies, activates, and aligns the gross physical body so that more spirit, light, inspiration, and creative force manifests from it (the form body of the Buddha as the nirmanakaya is empowered as skillful activity of body, speech, and mind. In short the energy is neither drawn exclusively "up" to the subtle body, nor is it exclusively drawn down into the physical as spirit's manifestation, but rather the energy is mutually synchronistic -- flowing in both directions and no direction continuously.

Instead of looking at this yogic process as artificially constructing a jeweled ship or anything else that is contrived piece by piece, rather the correct view for the yogi is to accept these energetics as allowing the innate intelligent circuitry to simultaneously arise in its primordial natural state because the krama and obstructions (the pre-existing artificial programming is becoming removed).

The youth are more preoccupied in bringing spirit down into manifestation A(s they are fresh from the Dharmakaya), but have not acclimated to Buddha's manifest body (nirmanakaya). On the other hand those preparing for the death of the physical body (usually in old age) are more concerned in practices that bring the energy up into the subtle and causal body. A balanced practice however views this practice as a both/and situation mutually non-exclusive.


The Energy Body and Subtle Body (Sukshma Sharira) as Energetic Matrix that Underlies and Governs the Physical (Sthula Sharira)



Instead of working from the sthula body in order to purify and reestablish the subtle or causal interconnections, one can work the physical directly from the subtle body once we have learned the territory. In this way changing the circuitry in the subtle energy body, will effect corresponding changes in the physical body. As stated because the beginner's awareness is coarse and unrefined at first, his awareness of the subtle body energetics is dull and obstructed. So beginners usually must start with the sthula body, purifying and activating its latent powers, opening up the nadis, and sharpening the mind. Then through the awareness of the subtle body, work from the subtle body into the physical (sthula) as well as the karana (causal) bodies become more effective.

Here one starts to mature/evolve not only the physical body in a natural way removing learned and accumulated impurities from the physical, but also the subtle body is purified, activated, and attuned it being capable of acting upon itself. The subtle body (just like the gross body) becomes brighter as the gross body weighs it down less. More light is available and shines forth. The mind and emotions become less entangled in confusion and illusion, and the subtle body's connections with the causal body (anandamaya kosha) are strengthened. New spiritual strength becomes available within one's physical and psychic space.

Now the transformed subtle body, becomes the bright body as one moves consciously from this more causal space. This is Buddha's bliss body of the sambhogakaya. Here one works with the nadis, prana, kundalini, chakra system, time, and space energetically. Guidance from the matured vijnanamaya kosha no longer is governed by ego, intellect, and will power but havving been cleared out from dualistic distractions and dissipations, it then can access the wisdom storehouse as the alayavijnana ( the akashic records ort storehouse consciousness) which in their maturity exist beyond the normal limitations of time and space, yet still have form. Such dimensions become easily accessible naturally and effortlessly as the will and intellect no longer dominate the the lwoer two bodies -- as the subtle energy body becomes purified, energized, and stabilized in the trabnsformed vijnanamaya kosha.

As more refinement is made (as karmic impediments are removed), the siddhis (like astral travel, levitation, supramundane knowledge, etc.) occur by themselves when called for. Thus the subtle body before maturity may look gray, occluded, dense, coarse, full of emotional and mental turmoil, heavy laden, unhappy, rife with kleshas, and disease, but as yoga's fruits are realized, it is purified, refined, activated, inspired, empowered, and integrated into the subtler light body, the bright body, an astral body, and/or angelic body motivated no longer by the kleshas but rather imbued by love and light - an emissary of the Mother of All creativity.


The Matrix of the Universe and Universal Soul: the Soul Body, the Causal Body (Karana Sharira), the Anandamaya kosha, the Dharmakaya Vehicle of all Buddhas



So again, the salient understanding is that all three bodies co-exist as one in space and time. As the energy body (sukshma sharira) becomes cleaned out, matures, empowered, and evolves then the practitioner may go to the reality of the subtle body to move the physical, to energize the voice, and to activate and creatively inspire one's thought processes.

For example our bodily actions, speech, and thoughts are now quickened as a reflection from the activated sukshma sharira. It's presence now shines through the physical space that we occupy. Likewise when we do healing we act from the energy body first. The physical body starts to retrain/organize itself around this activated energy body of light. Here the energy body and the coarse physical body act harmoniously and as one.

Likewise as we meditate or do other spiritual practice we start from the subtle body. This allows us to clear out the most subtle pathways that lead in and out of the causal body (anandamaya kosha, karana sharira, or dharmakaya (the primordial formless body of all the Buddhas). Here the body of light becomes fully charged, inspired, and spiritualized reinforcing its connections with the immutable body, causal body, diamond heart, or vajra body. The dharmakaya represents that which can not be represented nor defined, the formless realm outside of time and space -- the eternal primordial abode of all the Buddhas -- That place which has always been with us intimately from the beginningless beginning, that core/heart deepest place which we have never left except in delusion. Here the end of ignorance (avidya) is realized and hence the end of suffering and bondage. Thus the anandamaya kosha is full bliss and beauty when the gateway of the sahasrara chakra has been opened.

So what characteristics does this formless disembodied have? Are we limited then in addressing how the Buddha's bodies manifest in the gross and subtle bodies only? Certainly we can describe the pathways to the causal body easily and we can also describe how it "manifests" when the pathways have been cleared out (granted the pure causal body requires a subtle and/or coarse body to manifest).

So as the connections between the subtle body and the causal body are cleaned out and opened , there eventually occurs sympathetic harmony and attunement between all the bodies and sheaths which then occurs naturally and spontaneously as Grace without effort, will, or decision. This happens when the old habits (vasana), samskaras (old psychic imprints and traumas), kleshas, and karma become eliminated thus illuminating the self luminous disclosing the true Nature of Being and Consciousness in Satchitananda.

The Seed Body, the Golden Seed, the Divine Body, Hiranyagarbha Kosha, the Tathagatagarbha Womb of all Buddhas

Deep within the anandamaya kosha after all the karma has been cleaned up, there is only a seed potential. Here there is no sthula, sukshma, nor even karana shariras, the latter only in seed form. As such this is Siva in his absolute formless state, attributeless, nirguna, timeless but replete.

Here the unbounded essence of the mystery is unclothed, known without words in its utterless nakedness. Here the mystery of absolute emptiness (sunyata) devoid of any constituent thing and absolutely complete is represented as the infinite buddha potential that permeates all of time and space (the Tathagatagarbha). Here in the birthless state rebirth takes place or not. If it does it is not a birth driven by karma or conditions, but a divine birth ,otivated by pure unconditional love.

This is the essential of all the essentials -- the heart of hearts (hridayam) -- the causal essence which itself has no cause -- the seed and womb -- containing the seed of all seeds, the impetus and chalice both, known HERE all ways, by the virtue of no words and no concepts -- by acceptance and non-acceptance -- by not doing and not not doing -- by being and not being -- through blessed peace -- through her Grace. I bow over and over and over again.
Physical Death

So what happens at the time of physical death when the sthula sharira disconnect from the other two bodies? This depends upon the maturing and evolutionary state of the subtle body. If the subtle body has not evolved, then the subtle body having not established or completed the pathways to Infinite Spirit still is subject to karma. It must work out its mental, emotional, and belief system conflicts (karma, vasana, klesha, and samskaras). These resolve themselves by themselves according to the uniqueness of one's karma and desire body. Here the sambhogakaya becomes a desire body and reincarnates driven by the winds of one's past karmic formations.

Secondly, at this time of physical death, there is a greater window of opportunity to realize one's timeless nature, the grace of the dharmakaya as one is no longer attached to worldly dissipations. Here having matured the subtle body to a certain extent either through good krama or yoga, one may be able to recognize the clear light of one's essential nature and forging through toward realizing one's true nature. This can result in the activation of the matured subtle body (the bliss body aspect of the sambhogakaya) where one can chose one's destiny either to reincarnate consciously (in order to work out more karma) or work out the remaining karma in the bliss body state, then achieve total reintegration reabsorption into the dharmakaya (anandamaya kosha).

If one still has earthly karma to work out, then one can rest in the soul of the earth, the mother of creativity as she manifest on this planet, and gain nurture and inspiration from there. Here one can rest, become at one, and merge with the matrix of this entire world -- the entire manifest universe or other Nirmanakaya system, reincarnating/manifesting there as a conscious soul with universal consciousness. yet if ones yoga and forged pathways has not been strong, then a certain amount of forgetfulness is risked. What appears to be the common situation is that from the perspective of the matured subtle body there is a tendency to overlook the pollution problems of reincarnating in realms where ignorance, karma, klesha, and coarseness reign. Yet without a physical manifestation body (nirmanakaya) it is difficult to reach/interact with beings who are so engrossed.here the impurity of attachment must be wisely considered (when contemplating whether or not to reincarnate.

Thirdly, those who have worked with the physical and subtle bodies in yoga in their past life and/or through extremely fortunate karma in past lives, or otherwise through Grace, then gather up their consciousness and energy consciously into the subtle body and from there having forged the connections to the karana sharira consciously bathe in pure bliss of undiluted love. Here one understands that the yogic practice of pratyhara is not as much of an energetic gathering up and withdrawal from the dissipations and attachment to the objectified/externalized world of gross materialism (attachment to impermanence always creates a disintegration and corruption in the end), but further more it is simply a redirection of energy through focusing attention. Here the astral body (sukshma sharira) actually simply empowers itself, not as a separate entity, not as a body, but as an open pathway to the divine -- knowing oneself as an integral instrument and limb of the Great Integrity having re-found its place in the great magnitude and magnificence that orders all things as it is in its natural, spontaneous, and perfect intelligent expression.

This all encompassing/pervasive undistracted and unfiltered rainbow light that shines forth through the subtle body signals total re-integration with infinite beginningless eternal Source -- the dharmakaya. Here the subtle body becomes the rainbowlight body, diamond heart, or the vajra (indestructible body) signaling the total realignment and and ultimate manifestation of the unmanifest. Although this manifests through the subtle body, it is the result of an integration with the timeless causal/source body. In total reintegration there is no association/alignment with the human form per se.

When one has lost all specific identifications -- as all karma has become cleansed -- as all attachments cease, then the Soul of Creative urge -- the essence seed of creativity itself -- the mother/father of all creativity manifests in an instant that last forever. One becomes one, the Universal Soul of the universe, its seed, and its all pervading matrix non-exclusively.

Morphogenic Fields: The Morphogenic fields explained by “The Hundredth Monkey”

Morphogenic Fields: The Morphogenic fields explained by “The Hundredth Monkey”


Morphogenic Fields: The Morphogenic fields explained by “The Hundredth Monkey”
By Ken Keyes Jr.


The japanese monkey, Macaca fuscata, had been observed in the wild for a period of over 30 years.

In 1952, on the island of Koshima, scientists were providing monkeys with sweet potatoes dropped in the sand. The monkeys liked the taste of the raw sweet potatoes, but they found the dirt unpleasant. An 18-month-old female named Imo found she could solve the problem by washing the potatoes in a nearby stream. She taught this trick to her mother. Her playmates also learned this new way and they taught their mothers too.

This cultural innovation was gradually picked up by various monkeys before the eyes of the scientists. Between 1952 and 1958 all the young monkeys learned to wash the sandy sweet potatoes to make them more palatable. Only the adults who imitated their children learned this social improvement. other adults kept eating the dirty sweet potatoes.

Then something startling took place. In the autumn of 1958, a certain number of Koshima monkeys were washing sweet potatoes - the exact number is not known.

Let us suppose that when the sun rose one morning there were 99 monkeys on Koshima island who had learned to wash their sweet potatoes. Let's further suppose that later that morning, the hundredth monkey learned to wash potatoes.

THEN IT HAPPENED!

By that evening almost everyone in the tribe was washing sweet potatoes before eating them. The added energy of this hundredth monkey somehow created an ideological breakthrough!

But notice. A most surprising thing observed by these scientists was that the habit of washing sweet potatoes then jumped over the sea.

Colonies of monkeys on other islands and the mainland troop of monkeys at Takasakiyama began washing their sweet potatoes.

Thus, when a certain critical number achieves an awareness, this new awareness may be communicated from mind to mind. Although the exact number may vary, this Hundredth monkey Phenomenon means that when only a limited number of people know of a new way, it may remain the conscious property of these people. But there is a point at which if only one more person tunes-in to a new awareness, a field is strengthened so that this awareness is picked up by almost everyone!

Consciousness: What is Consciousness?

Consciousness: What is Consciousness?
Consciousness: What is Consciousness?
By Bharati Sarkar


We are largely unaware of the traffic of 'thoughts' within our heads including those that guide most of our living actions. The primary actions that keep us alive, such as breathing, seeing, hearing, touching and even tasting, take place without our conscious participation or stopping to think about them.



It is interesting to note that most of our purposeful behavior happens without the aid of consciousness. We even solve most of our routine problems unconsciously. It is when a purpose or result can be achieved by alternative means that consciousness is called upon. In other words, at the routine level of existence, we do not employ consciousness except when we are altering our actions or thoughts from the routine, for a purpose.



rudolf steiner believed animal consciousness to be the experience of desires, hopes and fears without self-awareness and the ability to view the body and those emotions from the point of view of an inner observer. He thought plants too have a form of consciousness, perhaps resembling human sleep. The German philosopher Friedrich von Schelling (1775-1854) wrote: "mind sleeps in stone, dreams in the plant, awakes in the animal and becomes conscious in man."



what is consciousness?

What raises us above other known sentient beings is our ability to be conscious of our own consciousness. But what does this mean, scientifically?



consciousness, according to western science, has its roots in the mind, which in turn is seated in the brain. The human brain, with its highly developed frontal cortex, is divided into three distinct parts and includes the cerebrum, cerebellum and the medulla oblongata or stem. The latter is a remnant of our reptilian ancestry with the ocean as its original habitat.



"Much of today's public anxiety about science is the apprehension that we may be overlooking the whole by an endless, obsessive preoccupation with the parts," says physician Lewis Thomas. The following view is an attempt to avoid the above pitfall.



Editor's Choice

"To learn is to eliminate," says neurobiologist Jean-Pierre Changeux. From the embryonic stage itself, there is a furious amount of editing at work to fine-tune our brain content. It startled scientists to discover that our growing up and learning process is not of adding new material so much as editing existing ones. Nerve cells in the brain die without being replaced in our infancy (or in degenerative brain disease as adults), although they appear to remain fairly stable later through a lifetime of healthy individuals. The fact remains that the brain is the only organ that does not grow new cells to replace those that are lost.



human consciousness is a cerebral ability with inputs from the approximately 50,000 million cells that constitute an adult body. There is a growing understanding of the intelligence in individual cells in living matter. The human body is incredibly complex and each of its cells is in constant communication not only with cells that perform similar functions but also with every other cell in the body. Our consciousness probably results from assimilating all this data and arriving at choices or solutions. Our present state of consciousness may be likened to the tip of the iceberg of potential human awareness, of itself and of the universe.



To arrive at consciousness, we have to enter the areas of the brain that contain memory, information and emotion. Human memories go back, to the primal soup and perhaps beyond, to the void before material creation. Scientists of various disciplines are involved in a worldwide research project that is trying to map all of the genes in the human dna sequence. Another project, not so widely publicized, known as the human consciousness project is already well under way to map the gamut of human consciousness including the unconscious. The latter project is also multidisciplinary and researchers around the world are piecing together what they call a spectrum of human consciousness. This includes: instinct, ego and spirit; pre-personal, personal and transpersonal; subconscious, self-conscious and super-conscious; thus, no state of consciousness is dismissed from its embrace. Undisputed evidence is already in hand that such a spectrum does exist.



The first concept associated with consciousness is 'awareness'. We are conscious when we are aware. This is immediately seen to be not quite true. We may be aware, for instance, without really being conscious of being aware. awareness is, therefore, only a part of consciousness. other known aspects of consciousness are free will, reasoning, visual imagery, recalling and making choices.



How Much Do We Know?

It is now widely accepted that all knowledge (heavily edited to include only that which is useful to human life), from the beginning of time, is available to each of us, an intelligence that is carried at the cellular, subatomic level. Highly evolved individuals who have touched the hem of the eternal and communed with the infinite through their higher consciousness, made that quantum leap but have been unable to transfer their understanding due to limitations imposed by language. Because language is incomplete and fragmentary, merely registering a stage in the average advance beyond the ape mentality. But all of us do have flashes of insight beyond meanings already stabilized in etymology and grammar.



What is reality?

Our brain is domineering when it comes to coping with reality. We sometimes see things not as they really are, sometimes invent categories that do not exist and sometimes fail to see things that are really there. There are people who have never seen or heard of an aircraft and will not be able to imagine it and a real airplane overhead will be distorted in their minds, creating alternative realities.



To recognize that what we call reality is only a consensus reality (only what we have agreed to call reality) is to recognize that we can perceive only what we can conceive. captain Cook's ship was invisible to the Tahitians because they could not conceive of such a vessel. joseph Pearce explains this best: "Man's mind mirrors a universe that mirrors man's mind." On the other hand, if a seed of imagination is sowed, a germ of an idea can be planted contrary to existing evidence. The seed will grow and sooner or later produce data to confirm or deny the idea.



A Complex issue

According to neurobiologist William Calvin, the human mind (in all likelihood, the seat of consciousness), located in the brain, is so complex that we have only just begun to understand bits and pieces of it. It is remarkable that despite the advancements of ancient civilizations in india, china, Mesopotamia and Greece, the discovery of the crucial importance of the brain as the seat of thought and action did not feature in human knowledge until barely two centuries ago. The navel, the liver and the heart were revered instead by different cultures, at various times.



consciousness is the most advanced event in the history of evolution. But we cannot separate it from the spirit, mind or brain. In western science, to put it simply, consciousness is the output of the mind, which is an aspect of the brain. consciousness depends heavily on memory, which is very tricky and can be full of holes, patched up, more often than not, by fantasy. memory is also selective and, often, faulty. We paint rosy pictures of incidents, events and people when it suits us and we also do the exact opposite. The fact that some of our memories (true ones, because no imagination is involved) go back several billion years to the procrustean age while others belong to just a few moments ago, only adds to its mysteriousness.



Muddying the waters even further is our emotions. Our feelings color our consciousness as much as our memories do. emotions are really reactions to external stimuli. You cannot feel an emotion in a vacuum. Even loneliness presumes that you have known togetherness. So, it appears that our consciousness needs the 'other' even if the other is your own mirror image or parts of your body/bodily functions. It needs an external environment; it needs language, an interaction with something outside itself. consciousness therefore presumes an entity that is aware of 'something' (including itself).



Understanding Our Own Minds

What does this mean? To understand something, first of all we need evidence of its existence. Here, therefore, we are trying to use something (the mind) to understand itself and produce evidence of its own existence, somewhat similar to the Drawing Hands of Escher that depicts a self-drawn drawing (see illustration). An inherent paradox where something in the system jumps out and acts on the system as if it existed outside it. And when we examine our own minds, this is exactly what happens. According to Godel's Incompleteness Theorem, understanding our own minds is impossible, yet we have persisted in seeking this knowledge through the ages!



Your Thoughts Count

The framework of consciousness is thought. Its shuttle is random selection and its warp and woof are memories and emotions. human consciousness, unlike awareness, includes a series of choices. American psychologist E.l. Thorndyke called this the method of trial, error, and accidental success. Modern AI (artificial intelligence) calls it 'generate and test'. Applied to our thought process, the chance creation concept goes back to Xenophanes in ancient Greece.

Our thoughts begin at random, our mind taking the first opening before it. Perceiving a false route, it retraces its steps, taking another direction. By a kind of artificial selection we perfect our thought substantially, making it more logical as we go along. With enough experience, the brain comes to contain a model of the world; an idea suggested by kenneth craik in his book The nature of explanation.

In an average day, we are conscious of several million things. Further, the conscious mind at a higher level is able to free itself from order and predictability to explore every possibility with its rich variety of choices and opportunities. This leads us to levels of consciousness.



Levels of consciousness

From the conscious awareness of an infant to its immediate environment, recognizing its mother as apart from others, for instance, levels of consciousness rise as we grow.



Colin Wilson suggests at least eight degrees of consciousness, from level 0 to 7. They are: level 0—deep sleep; level 1—dreaming or hypnagogic; level 2—mere awareness or unresponsive waking state; level 3—self awareness that is dull and meaningless; level 4—passive and reactive, normal consciousness that regards life 'as a grim battle'; level 5—an active, spontaneous, happy consciousness in which life is exciting and interesting; level 6—a transcendent level where time ceases to exist. Wilson does take note of further levels of consciousness as experienced by mystics but gives no details.



cosmic consciousness

Canadian psychologist richard m. bucke, in his book cosmic consciousness, coined this term. It is a transpersonal mode of consciousness, an awareness of the universal mind and one's unity with it. Its prime characteristic is a consciousness of the life and order in the universe. An individual who at attains this state is often described as 'enlightened' and such a person is also said to have a sense of immortality, not of attaining it but of already having it. Burke saw this state of consciousness as the next stage in human evolution, very much as spiritualists have always seen it.



indian yogis and mystics classify the seven states of consciousness differently. They point out that human beings normally experience only three states: sleeping, dreaming and waking. In meditation, fleetingly you experience turya, literally the fourth state, or transcendental consciousness, commonly known as samadhi. When this state coexists and stabilizes with the other three, that is the fifth state, where I-consciousness expands to become cosmic consciousness. The sixth state is god consciousness whereby you see god everywhere, in everything. The last is unity consciousness: what is within is also outside—pure consciousness, and nothing else is.



Spiritually, consciousness is as vast as the universe, both known and unknown. The potential power of this level of consciousness has been merely touched upon and that too by a few mystics. consciousness at this level becomes capable of magical powers, defying accepted scientific physical laws and giving us a glimpse of probable future developments in, among other things, quantum physics.



collective consciousness

Historically, great movements in any area emerge from a collective consciousness. It is not surprising that in any given field of activity, great ideas do not occur in isolation. Despite an idea germinating in an individual mind, it is interesting to note that the same idea strikes two or more thinkers, geographically far apart, around the same time. collective consciousness results from consensus. At any given time, collective consciousness is actively operational in a group as small as the family and as large as half the global population. The power of collective consciousness has not been fully explored or appreciated, except perhaps in times of great distress when 'prayers' are offered by a group of individuals for a particular reason and the prayers are answered.



The paradox of consciousness

The conscious human mind is capable of great good and equally extraordinary evil. It is only for the sake of simplicity that we talk of levels in the form of tiers with an upward hierarchy. In fact, consciousness, while rooted in causal linearity (within the Darwinian evolutionary framework) is dynamic, free moving and nonlinear. The greatest discoveries and inventions were arrived at intuitively. The genius sees what we all see except that s/he thinks about it differently. The evil genius does exactly the same.



kierkegaard says: "The supreme paradox of all thought is the attempt to discover something that thought cannot think." A conscious human knows something and he knows that he knows it (ad infinitum). The paradox of consciousness is not that we are aware of ourselves but of other things as well, including those that do not constitute the 'real world'. Of course, when we 'conceive' or imagine something 'unreal' even our farthest imagination cannot transcend 'known' symbolism, which is why there are some things that defy definition. One of these is 'consciousness' itself.



consciousness is a fresh fruit of evolution and our most prized possession. It is consciousness that sets us apart from the opulent variety of earth-life and puts upon us an onus of responsibility. It takes us on incredible journeys and has given us the gifts of insight and transcendence. The same kind of process that gives the earth abundant life allows us to have a sense of self, to contemplate the world, to forecast the future and make ethical choices. Each of us has under our control a miniature world, continuously evolving, making constructs unique to our own minds. In the same way that life itself unfolded, our mental life is progressively enriched, enabling each of us to create our own world.



The universe was born from chaos billions of light years ago and evolved through random selection, and is doing so even today. stars (and people) are born and die for no better reason than that they simply do. Some stars live longer than others do; some support a host of satellites. Our sun is one of the latter and our fragile planet is just a rock that accidentally came from the sun and eventually became home to an abundance of life forms. As life forms evolved through random selection, humans emerged on the top of the food chain and from there, in the blink of an eye, here we are, seriously and consciously looking for answers and meanings in the universe around us.

Nice Buddha

Numa Numa Dance

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SUFI WISDOM

Sufi Wisdom

"In the state of fana, which is also called ittihad, Lord and Worshipper, lover and Beloved, bith disappear. If there is no lover there is no Beloved. If there is no devotee, there is no Lord. The two are an inseparable polarity, so the disappearance of one is the disappearance of the other."

Abd Al Kader

Jung's Practice Of Analysis: A Western Parallel To Ch'an Buddhism

Jung's Practice Of Analysis: A Western Parallel To Ch'an Buddhism
This article was published in the Journal of Individual psychology 56(3) (Fall, 2000): pp. 353-65.

Jung's paradoxical attitude toward analysis and spirituality may be summarized in two of his frequently repeated remarks. On the one hand, he found every one of his patients over forty faced a problem that was essentially religious. It was not unusual for him to tell an older patient, "Your picture of God or your idea of immortality is atrophied, consequently your psychic metabolism is out of gear" (CW 8, ¶ 794). On the other hand, he insisted that those who claimed to be members in good standing in their church should take their problems to their priest or minister and not to an analyst. For example, he wrote to Jolande Jacobi, his Hungarian Jewish disciple who was a convert to Catholicism:

When I treat Catholics who are suffering from neurosis I consider it my duty to lead them back to the bosom of the Church where they belong. The ultimate decisions rest with the authority of the Church for anyone who is of the Catholic faith. Psychology in this context therefore means only the removal of all those factors which hinder final submission to the authority of the Church. Anyone who puts another "factor" above the authority of the Church is no longer a Catholic (Adler, 1973: 191).

These apparently contradictory attitudes are reconciled in Jung's view of religion and history (e.g., CW 5, ¶ 102-105). Over the long course of human history, religions have been the natural forms for keeping us healthily related to life as a daily struggle that has transcendent meaning. But in the last couple of centuries in the West, we have lost our religious roots. Traditional religious forms are no longer self-evidently and compellingly true. We are no longer gripped by their symbols, stories, rituals, and dogmas. We have developed an ego that is very effective regarding empirical, technological issues but estranged from our instincts and the mythic constructs of eternal meaning. And that we are sorely in need of these things is demonstrated by the religious issues of Jung's middle-aged patients.

The development of an ego well-adapted to our social and cultural world is, however, the goal of the "first half of life"; and matters of spirituality and wholeness arise only once such an ego has become well established. But the hazard of a socially-adapted ego is rigidity and a lack of real individuality. Indeed, the modern world is characterized by what Jung calls the culture of "mass man," hugely organized societies accompanied by a pervasive lack of meaningfulness. Because we cannot convince ourselves that the symbols and rituals of our traditional religions are still compelling, each of us has no alternative but to discover the unconscious source of meaning for ourselves. Typically we reach a point in life when our "mass-minded" adaptation fails, and we fall into a crisis. The breakdown of our conscious identity confronts us with neurotic symptoms and the opportunity for discovering our psyche's depth. This is particularly true at the transition between the first and second "halves" of life, when we are liable to what is today called a "mid-life crisis," and a "widening the horizon of [our] life" is called for. "Here the individual is faced with the necessity of recognizing and accepting what is difficult and strange as a part of his own life, as a kind of `also I'" (CW 8, ¶ 764).

For those few patients whose relation to their religious tradition is still vital, Jung chose to leave well enough alone. For analysis is a dangerous undertaking. If the individual cannot return to the church: "Then there is trouble; then he has to go on the Quest; then he has to find out what his soul says; then he has to go through the solitude of a land that is not created" (CW 18, ¶ 673). Analysis takes a person away from a religious world based in traditional forms of authority and into another one where the principles of order and meaning are no longer outside but thoroughly within. As Peter Homans has made abundantly clear, Jung understood the psychoanalytic movement as a replacement for and reinterpretation of traditional religion, especially Christianity. In Jung's view, traditional religions are unconsciously developed and inchoate forms of his own psychology of individuation. Thus "modern man" as been rediscovered as "psychological man" (Homans, 1995).

Jung's search for an unconscious principle strong enough to replace a "mass-minded" and potentially neurotic personality organization led him to what he calls the archetypes -- universal human themes, modes of perception, and patterns of behavior invested with compelling emotional values that can draw us into a new way of life. He dropped a hint about his new theory in a letter to Freud, March 19, 1911: "Symbol formation, it seems to me, is the necessary bridge to the rethinking of long familiar concepts from which the libidinal cathexis is partly withdrawn by canalizing it into a series of intellectual parallels (mythological themes)" (McGuire, 1974: 408). Because we have "withdrawn" our "libidinal cathexis" from traditional sources of meaning, we find ourselves adrift in a life without meaning until we can "rethink" our lives along mythological lines. This theory was elaborated into his book, Symbols of Transformation (CW 5), which occasioned the break with Freud.

Symbols of Transformation is the analysis of the dreams and fantasies of a certain Miss Frank Miller whom Jung diagnosed as an incipient schizophrenic. Her libido, or psychic energy, had already begun to flow away from the problems of everyday life and to take on an eroto-mystical quality. Jung argues that neurosis amounts to an avoidance of life's problems, rather along the lines of Adler's Guiding Fiction. The way out of the difficulty amounts to a kind of incest, but not the kind Freud had identified. The patient does not (unconsciously) want a sexual relationship with a parent, but rather seeks to re-enter the archetypal womb of the "Great Mother," which is also the unconscious, the matrix (mother) of all conscious life. The womb of the unconscious represents the destiny of all psychic energy that refuses to flow into the issues of everyday life. The neurotic problem that blocks further advancement in daily life looks for solutions in the "intellectual parallels" that occur in mythology and are our universal human heritage.

Jung articulated this archetypal theory in terms of a "monomyth" [1] that plays the role in his theory that the oedipus complex plays in the thought of Freud, or the quest for transcending superiority in Adler. Jung's monomyth is that of the Sun Hero. The sun that sets in the Western Sea every evening has to fight the powers of darkness and confinement all night long in order to be renewed and to rise out of the Eastern Sea every morning. The subterranean sea of the myth corresponds to the unconscious of the individual. The Sun Hero imitates the sun in entering the lair of the dragon, the realm of the dead, etc., so as to wrestle with the forces of darkness and be renewed. Psychologically speaking, this drama represents the task of every individual in need of renewal: to enter the domain of the unconscious and to struggle with one's own instinctual forces and emerge with the prize of a new ego-attitude, a more adequate and complete sense of self, so that one can proceed in life with new power, new conviction, new harmony, and a deeper sense of meaningfulness.

Writing Symbols of Transformation, Jung tells us in his "Foreword to the Fourth Edition," taught him "what it means to live with a myth." Upon examining his own life, however, he discovered that he had no idea what his own myth was. It certainly was not that of Christianity. He found he was living "in an uncertain cloud of theoretical possibilities which I was beginning to regard with increasing distrust." He was living in his ego and his complexes, and did not know "what unconscious or preconscious myth was forming me, from what rhizome I sprang" (CW 5: xxv). The break with Freud occasioned a psychological crisis of near-psychotic proportions, and he found no way out other than to let himself "drop" into a series of imaginal encounters with the forces of his own unconscious (Jung, 1961: 179-199). In this manner he began to live out the doctrine he had already described in his book. He found himself faced with situations and with figures -- divine, human, and animal -- which humiliated and flattered him. He attended their lessons carefully, and then returned to ordinary consciousness to struggle with them, working out the mythological parallels. He was so close to insanity during much of this time that he had to remind himself daily of his identity as husband, father, and psychiatrist (Jung, 1961: 189).

Here we have an indication of what Jung meant when he tried to send church members back to their religion so as to save them from that more dangerous "Quest . . . through the solitude of a land that is not created." If traditional religion cannot save you from your neurotic issues, you must undergo the hero's journey into the disorienting and potentially destructive womb of the Great Mother in order to discover who you are in a more essential sense, in order to be transformed.

This interior mythological adventure begins in danger and the threat of the death and dissolution of our identity. The entire unconscious takes on the appearance of our "shadow": immoral, immature, awkward, unadapted, and above all threatening us with insanity. This is the period when the Sun Hero realizes that the realm of darkness cannot be avoided. Successful analytic work at this stage results in our discovery of powerful new values in that "subterranean sea." The unconscious takes on the mystery and allure of a figure that generates erotic interest. Generally it is personified as an attractive but dangerous figure of the opposite sex ("anima" in men, "animus" in women) who inspires us with the interest and passion to undertake new adventures: "A man who is not on fire is nothing; he is ridiculous, he is two-dimensional" (Jung, 1966: 34).

In this picturesque language, Jung describes the goal of the process. After entering the maw of the shadow, the Sun Hero tames the forces of the subterranean sea to such an extent that they take on the allure of a mermaid queen. Further progress reveals that she is an independent and autonomous component of one's wholeness. If the anima or animus speaks with the voice of the spirits, the snake, or the bird, intuitive glimpses of the self are being conveyed. The goal of the "individuation process" is to reach this point where the holistic perspective of the self, the archetype of wholeness and balance in the psyche, is able to offer its commentary on the ego's intentions through pronouncements "of an intuitive nature." To have realized that the anima or animus is an "inner function" means to have attained a living relationship with our wholeness. Furthermore, to say that the self's views may become available through a forest spirit or a snake points to the self's connection with a transcendent image. In fact, Jung has cited cross-cultural parallels for his concept of self that include the Hindu Atman and Brahman, the Buddha, the Tao, the Islamic Khidr, the Holy Ghost, Christ, and Mithras, as well as the alchemical guiding spirit, Mercurius, and the philosophers' stone.

In the 1930's Jung pursued "the phenomenology of the self" into a lengthy study of alchemy, which he took to be a culturally wide-spread and psychologically naïve pursuit of individuation. Again he appealed to the myth of the Sun Hero to make sense of alchemy (CW 12, ¶ 437-441). But he also gained a new perspective. The alchemists were no less aware that the spirit could speak out of matter than were the pre-literate peoples who say, "He has gone into the forest to talk with the spirits." Jung particularly favored the formulation of Gerhard Dorn, one of his favorite alchemists, who spoke of living in the unus mundus, the "one world" in which empirical events and spiritual vision are not separate (CW 14, ¶ 759-775). It also has a parallel in the Islamic legends of Khidr, who journeyed along the barzakh, the isthmus between the empirical world and the mundus imaginalis, the imaginal world (cf. Corbin, 1969; 1981; and Wilson, 1993: 139-146). It is the unitary world in which "outer" and "inner" reflect and symbolize one another.

The study of alchemy led, therefore, to Jung's preoccupation with the phenomenon he calls synchronicity, the non-causal fact that sometimes "meaningful coincidences" occur in which our subjective state is paralleled by an empirical event that occurs outside of us. Among his many examples of this phenomenon, the most frequently cited is his analysis of a woman he describes as defensively attached to a Cartesian, ego-centered philosophy. This kept her neurotically stuck so that she could not get on with her life. Jung could find no way to introduce her to the "steeper gradient" of the irrational archetypes that might have undermined her rigidity and transformed her attitude toward life. He appears to have been at his wits' end when a synchronistic event occurred. She was recounting a dream in which she had been given a golden scarab (Egyptian symbol of rebirth). In the midst of her monologue, a rose chafer tapped at the window behind Jung's head. He opened the window, grabbed the green-gold beetle, Northern Europe's closest analogy to the Egyptian scarab, and handed it to the patient, saying, "Here's your scarab." This dramatic event turned out to be precisely what the patient needed to place the narrowness of the ego's perspective into the holistic context of a dialogue with the self (CW 8, ¶ 843-845).

Jung's prominent disciple Marie-Louise von Franz gave her friend, Barbara Hannah, a vivid picture of being in analysis with Jung in the garden room of his house on the Lake of Zurich, when he was attentive to every natural event as comprising a synchronistic commentary on the analytic dialogue: "insects flying in, the lake lapping more audibly than usual, and so on" (Hannah, 1976: 202, n. k). He had come to the view that the psyche is not so much a factor locked inside our bodies but "more like an atmosphere in which we live" (Adler, 1973: 433). For one who has attained an on-going intuitive relationship with the self, events both inner and outer constitute the voice of the forest spirit or the snake.

Jung articulated his synchronicity theory primarily in terms of the Chinese "Classic of Changes," the I Ching. According to the philosophy behind the I Ching, every moment has its own character, and everything that occurs in that moment shares in that unique quality (CW 8, ¶ 863-867). The "inner reality" of our psychological state corresponds to the "outer reality" of events taking place in our surroundings at the same time. Jung employed the I Ching as a device to discover the external world as the psychic "atmosphere in which we live," and he began to use synchronistic events as an essential element in his practice of analysis.

As important as the I Ching was to Jung, however, I think he might have found a closer parallel to his synchronicity-oriented therapy in Ch'an Buddhism (Chinese Zen). Argentine journalist Miguel Serrano reports finding Jung a month before his death having just finished a book on Ch'an Buddhism, prompting the comment: "It seemed to me that we were talking about the same thing, and that the only difference between us was that we give different words to the same reality" (Serrano, 1966: 100). We are not told the author or title of that book. It certainly was not Peter Hershock's original interpretation of Ch'an Buddhism, Liberating Intimacy (1996). But if Hershock is right about Ch'an, its closeness to Jung's practice of analysis is quite remarkable.

All Buddhism is concerned to solve the problem of suffering. Ch'an's approach is based on the recognition that suffering is an "interruption of our personal narrative." We are neurotically "stuck" when the self-defining story we tell ourselves is no longer adequate to the demands of our lives. The personal narrative of our selectively remembered past flows into a future defined by our "projections of attachment and aversion." Our ego has rigidified; and when a challenging event occurs, we are brought to a halt and fall victim to suffering. We demonstrate our stuckness and the pervasive nature of our suffering by responding in stereotyped ways. Hershock says, "The only way to bring suffering -- a personal narrative -- to an end without making some karma which will return to the same configuration is to dissolve the source of the suffering, the `I' who views the world through the projections of attachment and aversion" (Hershock, 1996: 98). This appears to be a variation on Jung's argument that the rigidity of an ego-attitude can only be overcome by an irrational factor such as the synchronistic event of the rose chafer's tapping at the window or a large wave crashing on the shore of the lake. The ego that learns to incorporate such events into a new "life narrative" or "personal myth" has converted the crisis into an opportunity.

According to Ch'an the disturbing interruption must be spontaneously taken up as the first gesture of an improvisation which will creatively transform the incident.

[T]he end of suffering is best construed neither as an escape nor as an attainment of unbreached control, but as the creative incorporation of what originally arises in our experience as a disruption of the order or timing of our life-narrative. A talented jazz musician will take an accidental or mistaken chord or note and improvise with and around it, creating in the process an entirely novel passage within the context of a perhaps quite familiarly ordered piece of music. And, in much the same way, the interruptions of suffering afford us the opportunity of conducting ourselves in an unprecedented and manifestly liberating fashion (Ibid., 20). style='font-size:10.0pt'>

The Ch'an Buddhist lives in a world that "is irreducibly dramatic." The social world is a stage, and every move in our performance, every choice we make, "determine[s] the meaning of our jointly articulating lives" (Ibid., 47). "It is our situation itself that directs us" (Ibid., 189). "[W]hat matters is simply the manner in which things come together, their quality of interdependence" (Ibid., 132). "Synchronicity" is but the name for how "things come together" and reveal their meaningful "interdependence" within "the jointly articulating lives" of analyst and analysand.

According to Hershock, Ch'an defines "enlightenment" as "a unique way of conducting ourselves in the narrative space of interpersonality" (Ibid., 63). He means that enlightenment is found only "on the way," while sojourning through the ordinary world in an extraordinary manner, that is by greeting each incident as an opportunity for improvisation. Improvisation is the spontaneous creativity that occurs only between one person and another or between people and events. There is always an established melody within which a particular note or chord surprises us. It can cause us suffering when we dwell on its departure from the rhythm or tonality of the established song (our "personal narrative"). Or it can be taken as inspiration for an improvisatory riff. Enlightened beings are masters of spontaneity and improvisation. They have rooted out suffering by freeing themselves from the personal narrative which would otherwise have reacted to interruption and discord with pain. Those who are enlightened wander through the world without goals and find opportunity for creative spontaneity everywhere.

"Ch'an orients us to . . . a choreo-poetic pedagogy of joint improvisation" (Ibid., 65). In this process, we relinquish our egos "indirectly" through a partner "with whom we can enter into lively and mutually `self'-effacing concourse" (Ibid., 148). Indeed, this "partner" need not be human, as we can see from Ch'an stories in which "a stone striking a stick of bamboo, the honking of a flock of geese, or the moonlight shining through a tracery of autumn branches" occasions the dropping of body-and-mind (Ibid., 222).

Nevertheless, the primary teaching device in Ch'an, as in Zen, is the encounter between master and disciple in which the latter is "in a very literal sense . . . tricked into enlightenment" (Ibid., 148). This sort of training encounter is called fa ch'an, which Hershock translates as "dharma combat" (Ibid., 80). Dharma combat seeks to undermine "everything familiar and comfortingly secure," to deliberately introduce "suffering" in the sense of a disruption of the disciple's personal narrative. But the master is as much at risk as the student; for the master, too, must "drop every pretense, every hope of security in order to awaken" (Ibid., 81). In parallel fashion Jung argues in The Psychology of the Transference (CW 16: ¶ 375) that the analyst must be as much affected by the work as the patient. And in an address to his students at the Jung Institute in Zurich in the 1950's, he urged them to be "natural, spontaneous, open, vulnerable, and unprotected by the professional persona" -- even to the point of allowing their "shadow to enter the room" (Stein, 1988: 152).

When our "shadow enters the room," we are apt to say or do something disreputable that is likely to bring about a narrative crisis in our dialogue partner. That a high regard for the shadow belongs to the paradigmatic structure of Ch'an is shown in the reverence it affords to the outrageousness of its legendary masters:

The most loved masters of Ch'an . . . are those who display the wildest personas, whose teaching is the most iconoclastic. . . . [E]ach one of them is what we might call a "real character," a kind of spiritual maverick. Some are outright rascals, . . . ready to sprout angelic wings, . . . [or] as earthy and carefree as the village idiot. . . . In Ch'an, not only are idiosyncrasy and uniqueness not leveled down with the realization of enlightenment, they seem if anything to be accentuated (Hershock, 1996: 191).

A disciple's training is designed to provide one communicative crisis after another. When a master's capacity for original and spontaneous disruptions has become exhausted, the disciple is urged to travel to another who is sure to produce crises of a new sort (Ibid., 114). The disciple becomes a wayfaring anchorite, where the events that occur along the path of the journey are no less important than the dharma combats designed by the masters holding forth at every waystation.

In one of its teaching stories, Ch'an remembers its ninth century patriarch, Lin-chi, [2] instructing his disciples on one of his favorite themes: "[T]he true person of no rank (wu-wei-chen-jen) -- a person who has no fixed place from which s/he acts, no set patterns of behavior or unchanging tasks and goals." A monk in the audience interrupted, demanding to know who exactly this person of no rank is. Lin-chi leapt off the dais, "began throttling the monk and demanded that he `Speak! Speak!' When the monk failed to respond immediately, Lin-chi thrust him away, exclaiming, `What kind of dry shit stick is this "true person of no rank"!'" (Ibid., 193).

This dharma combat is begun by the obstreperous monk who interrupts Lin-chi's favorite thesis. The interruption comes from the "floor," from a man of lesser "rank" than Lin-chi and exposes Lin-chi's position on the dais as a potential contradiction: "Here is a man with the highest imaginable rank lecturing us on having `no rank.'" It would be a painful moment for the average teacher, but Lin-chi finds it an opportunity. Immediately he leaps down from the dais, his place of rank, and conducts himself as a highway robber, a man of "no rank." Because he hesitates not an instant, he shows by his conduct that rank means nothing to him. He reacts with a spontaneous improvisation -- completely unexpected and wholly out of character for a man of rank. In this manner he redeems the interruption and turns it into an opportunity to enact the thesis he has been expounding. In throttling the obstreperous monk while shouting, "Speak! Speak!" he announces that his second move in the dharma combat requires a third -- as though to say, "If you're going to challenge me to dharma combat, you had better be ready to reply." He disrupts the saucy personal narrative of the irreverent monk with a humiliating crisis.

There are a number of anecdotes concerning Jung that portray him as a crazy-wise guru not unlike Lin-chi. For example, Sigrid Strauss-Kloebe tells of an encounter Jung had with two unknown women immediately after his memorial address for Richard Wilhelm, Jung's sinologist friend who translated the I Ching into German. The unknown women immediately began to insist that high caliber artists surely have no shadow. When Jung disagreed, one of them said, "But you, Herr Professor, you are, after all, an exception!"

Jung said nothing. The subject of conversation changed. A few minutes later, Jung leaned back in his chair and stared at two strange ladies who stood in the foyer very modishly dressed and said with tiny narrow eyes: "Now those ladies would interest me a lot!"

No reply from the two idolizers (Strauss-Kloebe, 1982). [3]

The training exercise of dharma combat involves two elements: The master provokes a personal narrative crisis, and the disciple reacts with spontaneous improvisation. Instead of being trapped in the crisis, the disciple learns to grasp the larger situation by altering the focus of attention. Lin-chi, for example, does not fall victim to formulating a verbal explanation of his position. He grasps the larger situation, his place of honor on the dais. Only because he is an authority can he be "waylaid" by an obstreperous monk. Waylaying and the elevation of the dais constitute the standard "tune" into which the irreverent monk has introduced a discordant note. It inspires Lin-chi to improvise a waylaying "riff." He enacts the role of highway robber even more emphatically than his opponent. Jung employs the same waylaying device in answering the small-minded women. He, too, is aware of the danger of falling victim to idealization by his followers, and seems to have no concern about embarrassing himself through "low-life" conduct. He allows his "shadow to enter the room." He becomes a man of "no rank." The women, furthermore, are as "speechless" as the obstreperous monk: "No reply from the two idolizers."

The analysis of the scarab-dream woman reveals a remarkably similar structure. Like the obstreperous monk, the patient is stuck in the rationality of her ego-centered approach to life. Her consultation with Jung places him on the dais as analyst and expert. She looks to him to solve her problem through rational discourse. Like Lin-chi, Jung sees rational dialogue as a trap. The dharma combat is already underway. His reply directs attention to a wider context, when he says in effect, "I have no answers; let's see what your dreams can tell us." At this point the woman is as unconvinced as the obstreperous monk. Skeptically, she tells Jung a dream of being given a golden scarab. It seems clear from Jung's account that this is not the first dream this woman has told. He has already learned that rational explication of the dream in terms of the mythology of ancient Egypt, while correct enough, will effectively amount to falling victim to the patient's rationalistic expectations. It looks for a moment as though Jung is as much embarrassed and victimized as Lin-chi appeared to be while the obstreperous monk was speaking.

But Jung shifts the focus of attention away from the conversation itself to the whole context: two people sitting in a room talking while a whole world of nature exists just outside the walls. Unexpectedly there is a tapping at the window. Something wants to gain entrance. If Jung had attended only to the words being exchanged in his search for the irrational factor that would overturn his patient's rationality, be would have remained stuck himself -- just as surely as Lin-chi would have fallen victim to the dharma combat had he not attended to the highway-robber theme implicit in the interruption.

Opening the window and presenting the woman with the rose chafer constitutes an act of spontaneous improvisation based in a grasp of the whole context. Abruptly departing from the conventional rules of analysis, Jung turns his back on his patient and opens the window. Initially his actions seem as irrelevant and discourteous as Lin-chi's springing down from the dais. A moment of complete confusion follows for both patient and monk. But then it is clear that an answer has been given on a wholly new plane of meaning: "Here is your scarab!" "Speak! Speak!" Spontaneous improvisation works when an irrational move demonstrates its transformative relevance as a "riff" which reinterprets the crisis as the first note in a variation on an established theme. An answer is given from a wholly unexpected quarter. A familiar situation is transformed through liberating interaction.

The best evidence for Jung's analytic work as spontaneous improvisation comes not from his Collected Works so much as from the testimony of his patients and students. They say, for example, that Jung went off on a tangent, but then "I discovered that he was speaking to my essential condition" (Stein, 1988: 151-161). He was answering all the questions I had not had a chance to ask (Spiegelman, 1982: 87-89). I entered a frightening condition where the world was reduced to "whizzing molecules" (Wheelwright, 1982: 97-105). I asked him, "What is the difference between me and that table?" (Weaver, 1982: 91-95). Then Jung told me the second half of my dream, the part I had withheld (Hilde Kirsch in Whitney & Whitney, 1983). [4] In each one of these encounters, Jung makes the essential move of dharma combat by attending to the wider context that made the crisis possible and comes up with a spontaneous improvisation that transforms the dead-endedness of the old tune through a new riff.

Sometimes Jung attends to the insects flying in the window or the lapping of the waves of the lake. Sometimes he allows himself to be inspired by the "interactive field" that obtains between himself and his patient. Then he says he "thinks unconsciously" (Fischer, 1977: 166). He pays attention to the fantasies rising into his own consciousness out of the emotional field he shares with his patient. In lectures he gave at the Jung Institute in Zurich during the last decade of his life, he describes this style of interaction as his own distinctive contribution to the work of analysis. He says that the interactive field manifests itself as an intelligent third partner in the exchange between patient and analyst. In these informal lectures, he refers to the invisible agent as the "Two Million Year-Old Man" or as the "Great Man." "Two million years" alludes to the ancient wisdom of the human race, the heritage of our "collective unconscious." The "Great Man" suggests the "superior man" of the I Ching and the Anthropos of the ancient Gnostics.

Analysis is a long discussion with the Great Man -- an unintelligent attempt to understand him. Nevertheless, it is an attempt, as both patient and analyst understand it. . . . Work until the patient can see this. It, the Great Man, can at one stroke put an entirely different face on the thing -- or anything can happen. In that way you learn about the peculiar intelligence of the background; you learn the nature of the Great Man. You learn about yourself against the Great Man -- against his postulates. This is the way through things, things that look desperate and unanswerable. The point is, how are you yourself going to answer this? . . . The unconscious gives you that peculiar twist that makes the way possible (Baynes, 1977: 360-361).

"How are you yourself going to answer this?" formulates the crisis provoked by an interruption of a personal narrative. Attending to the "Great Man" amounts to laying oneself open to spontaneous and irrational inspiration, the precondition for an improvisatory riff.

Even Jung's provocative approach to Catholics (cited in the first paragraph of this paper) appears to be the first move in a dharma combat. His sending them back "to the bosom of the Church where they belong" may suggest a bit of Protestant prejudice. Nevertheless, the attempt to send them back is surely apt to produce a "narrative crisis" in a Catholic with an unexamined attitude toward churchly authority. In effect Jung says, "If you want to undertake analysis, no appeals to theology or dogma will be permitted. You will have to grant full authority to your unconscious and what it produces." No doubt a good number of them turned sadly away. Those who did not will have had to convince Jung that they were no longer "Catholic." They will have had to produce a second move in the dharma combat that effectively lays aside the churchly "defense." They will have had to take up the narrative crisis Jung produced in them as the first note in an improvisation. They will have had to respond in some sense from their "wholeness," from the unconscious, irrationally, as though fed by a spiritual source greater than the ego.

Archetypes, Divinity and Man --

Archetypes, Divinity and Man --
ARCHETYPE

The term "Archetype" actually has two relevant meanings here. The first definition is "that which all other similar things are patterned after, the original model or prototype". When we are referring to the archetypal Gods and Goddesses, we are referring to the original, inconceivable power or personage after whom every name, concept or image is but a human attempt to conceive or describe. In the case of the Goddess archetype, her attributes are frequently broken down into the Goddess triad of Maiden, Mother, and Crone. The use of the triad makes it possible to divide the feminine archetype by the aspect and function of the feminine being discussed. All of the names and images of Goddesses, including Isis, Demeter, Artemis, Diana, Bast, Gaea, Rhea, Astarte, Inanna, Ishtar, Kali, Hecate, and Tiamat, to mention a few, are but the names and corresponding aspects created by man so that he could better conceive and relate to the Archetypal Feminine, which is unknowable and undefinable.

This principle also relates to the male archetype with all of his vast array of positions and functions. In many of the ancient "Schools of the Mysteries", these male archetype positions and functions were broken into four general categories, including the King, the Magician, the Lover, and the Warrior. The use of these titles per se comes primarily from the Grail Mysteries and Arthurian "legend"; however, careful examination of history clearly shows male status and function was cast into one of these four archetypal molds even anciently.

The second association with the term "archetype" comes from the work of Carl Jung, a Swiss psychologist, and refers to "an instinctual pattern of behavior contained in the collective unconscious". What this means is that the archetypal patterns which relate to the human experience are not unique to any one person or group. The archetypal patterns are contained in the "Human Collective Unconscious" (the human Universal Mind) and can be related to by everyone, either consciously or subconsciously, and have their expression in the group "Consensus Reality". Or in other words, every individual within a particular culture, society, religious or political group or association will have the same or a very similar idea of what a particular name, concept or image means. Throughout the world, certain names instantly bring to mind a specific person, usually accompanied by some knowledge of their life and what act, event or concept makes them special to you, but on a larger scale, within a mass/group "Consensus Reality". Probably one of the most common is the name "Jesus". Jesus is a given name, "Christ" is an archetypal title denoting the "Sacrificed King", which in this case is what makes Jesus, within a certain Group reality, very special. But this special designation is only maintained with a Mass/Group Consciousness, and is not universal to everyone.

EGREGORE

Since, by the very definition of the Archetypal God and Goddess, they are unknowable and inconceivable to the human experience except by dissection and association, we as mortals must find ways to bridge the gap between us and Them. This brings us to a second term called "Egregore".

An Egregore, by its simplest definition, is a being that exists between the Physical Plane of mortal existence and the Ultimate Plane of Archetypal existence, touching in both planes and acting as a conductor between man and the Divine. It is created by a combination of man projecting empowered thought forms into the ethers of the Eternal through ritual and worship (where they ripple until they touch upon the Divine), and the Archetype (the "Divine") responding by sending an image, an aspect, a piece of Itself, if you will, back down through the ethers until it reaches man and an Egregore is created. The Egregore is the living thought-form (the being) between man and the Archetype.

Since it must be acceptable and conceivable to the mortal, it is only a shadow of the Archetype. But since it is endowed by a spark of the Divine, it is empowered with the aspects and powers that the Divine chooses to display. The Egregore becomes the "Manifest God or Goddess" of that individual or people. As man continues to empower the Egregore by consistent ritual and worship, the Egregore gains in strength and power. Through the continuation of this process, the knowledge, the power and the attributes which It can or will share may develop and grow accordingly. An Egregore is a powerful tool that allows man to access the Divine, and tap the higher knowledge, power and favors of the Divine.

Once man's empowered thoughts (through prayer, ritual, etc.) have reached the attention of the "Divine", and the "Divine" chooses to respond, the resulting Egregore will set the bounds of the relationship. The Egregore will direct the mortal(s), through communication or lack of response, in the terms, conditions, the person or persons the Egregore will directly communicate with, any sacred locations, symbols, tools, rituals, food/drink, and any expected homage or worship (if required).

There is a vast array of dimensions and realities that interface with the Physical Plane. Sometimes an Egregore is created by connection between man and an OtherWorld being of a much "closer" realm, such as the Astral Plane. When this happens, the "Spark of the Divine" is missing, with all its attendant Higher Knowledge, Power, Abilities and Higher Thought Processes. An Egregore created between man and a "Lesser Being" may not exhibit an independent morality or conscience.

Once an Egregore has been created, It takes on a life unto Itself. You may disempower an Egregore by failing to meet the Egregore's "Terms Of Association"; however, this does not destroy an Egregore, it only breaks your connection to it. If at any time, someone once again meets the "Terms Of Association", the Egregore will step forward and continue as before

The Shaman And The Shadow --

The Shaman And The Shadow --
The Shadow Side of Human Consciousness



SHAMANISM AND THE SHADOW

The purpose of Shamanism is to integrate conflicting aspects of the human psyche with each other, and the whole with the Cosmic Psyche, and to develop the power and self-knowledge to enable the shaman to achieve results that are beyond the abilities of the undeveloped, un-self-aware psyche. Integrating conflicting aspects of the human psyche is the basis of all character development, and is essential to achieving balance and happiness. It releases and channels those potentially limitless psychic powers that are inherent in all of us.

The difference between a healer and a shaman is that a healer is a person who is able to use the forces of light to effect a cure in the body, mind, or spirit of another, without using the forces of the Shadow. Because of the nature of some illnesses, this method is not always effective, and a shaman must be sought for a cure. A shaman is a healer who has walked up to the Underworld gates of his/her own personal hell and then walked in. He/she has confronted and conquered his/her self-created demons, such as fear, insanity, loneliness, self-importance, and addictions, has unflinchingly confronted his/her own Shadow self as well as the evil of others, and can successfully deal with forces of darkness equally with those of light. A shaman can do exorcisms and can reverse hexes and the results of black arts that have been used on a patient, because by dealing with one's own Shadow and coming to terms with that Shadow self, one gains peace of mind and balance, and the black arts have no control over that person, for his/her personal fears and inner demons have already been dealt with. Both the shaman and the healer can effect cures, but only the shaman is trained in dealing with any type of black arts that may have caused illness. For clarification, a shaman is not a sorcerer, one who is trained in and uses only the black arts to accomplish their purposes. Many people in today's society are calling themselves shamans without any knowledge of exactly what this means. If the would-be shaman does not have the ability to look at his/her own shadow side, he/she will not be able to follow the path of the shaman. He/she would never be able to confront or handle the results and/or intentions of the black arts.

A shaman's medicine colors are black and white because he/she walks the world of Light as well as Shadow - the polarity of man's existence. Black and white also represents the balance a shaman seeks to maintain, both inside himself/herself as well as bringing that balance to his/her clients. It is well expressed in the Eastern concept of yin-yang.

Bat is the Mayan and Aztec symbol for rebirth, and the totem animal for shamanism. Bat hangs upside down in the cave, just as humans are nestled upside down in their mothers' wombs. In leaving the womb or the cave, each is forced to look at light and shadow. Bat embraces the idea of the Shaman's death. In ancient traditions, the would-be-shaman was sent to a certain location to dig his/her own grave, and then spent the night inside that grave, totally alone. The grave opening was supported by limbs, covered by a blanket, and then filled over with dirt and debris. Absolute darkness and total silence quickly cause the initiate to be confronted by his/her fears. The basic idea of the initiation was to break down all former notions of "self", and to cause the initiate to face his/her inner fears and demons. When the initiate is released from the grave, the old persona and ways of life of the one "who was put in in the ground" truly are dead and buried. A "new" person emerges, reborn, with the right BY INITIATION to be called a shaman, and to heal. During my initiation, I spent three days and two nights totally isolated within the grave, and it truly is a terrifying experience.

In modern times, as with so many ancient rituals and initiations, the Shaman's Death is considered by society as too severe and dangerous, and so the actual rite is seldom seen or heard of. But the right to be called a shaman is no less contingent on the notion of the death of the old "self" than it was in ancient times. One does not choose to walk the path of a shaman, the Spirits call a person to walk the path of a shaman, usually by a traumatic, life-altering experience. This experience may be sufficient to constitute an initiation; however, the psychiatric wards are full of uninitiated shamans, who had a traumatic experience and no one to guide them to understanding! The understanding unfolds as we work with the Shadow self. The Underworld is the arena. Because the shaman has walked through the Underworld of the Shadow and knows firsthand the pain involved in breaking the stranglehold of inner darkness, a true shaman always has compassion for the paths that others must walk.

PSYCHOLOGY AND THE SHADOW

In order to understand the Shadow, it is important to understand a little bit of psychology. Carl Jung, one of the fathers of current psychology, was actually a student of the occult. His teachings closely parallel the teachings of the Huna in Hawaii on the three selves, referred to in my writings as Anatomy of A Magical Human. His concept says that the aspects of the human psyche are named the Ego, The Shadow(everything in the psyche apart from the conscious Ego), the Anima (a man's buried feminine side), The Animus (a woman's buried masculine side), the Personal Unconscious, the Collective Unconscious, the Persona (the cloak around the Ego) , and the Self (The center and ultimate foundation of our psychic being). The greater part of the psyche is unconscious, out of the reach of our conscious Ego, but it strongly influences the Ego's behavior without our realizing it. Unconscious is also connected to the collective conscious (an individual outcrop of it, so to speak) and it often knows better what our real needs are than the Ego does. The Ego, on the other hand, possesses gifts which the unconscious lacks - the ability to analyze and categorize incoming data, to think by logical steps, and to communicate with the Ego by the precise and subtle means of speech.

When communication between the Unconscious and the Ego is faulty, conflicts emerge, leading to all kinds of problems, such as tension, neurosis, psychosis, schizophrenia, and nervous breakdowns. What is needed, obviously, is greatly improved communication between the conscious Ego and the Unconscious. The Ego must become aware of the fact that the Unconscious has messages for it, then the Ego must learn how to interpret those messages, which the unconscious can only express in symbols. The Unconscious is all too eager to communicate. Obviously, the whole content of the Unconscious can never be made directly available to the Ego, but a great deal of it can, enough to remove all major conflicts and to enrich significantly the Ego's range of effectiveness, both by increasing the amount and variety of incoming data on which it can act, and by teaching it the lesson that it is not the only, or even the most important, function of the total psyche. The more the Ego learns this lesson, and acts on it, the closer it comes to activating the central self and handing over control to it. The work of the Shaman is to integrate conflicting aspects of the psyche with each other, and the whole of the Cosmic Psyche, and to develop the power and the self knowledge to enable the shaman to achieve results that are beyond the abilities of the undeveloped, un-self-aware psyche. Integrating conflicting aspects of the human psyche is the basis of all character development. It releases and channels those potentially limitless psychic powers which are inherent in all of us.

WHAT IS THE SHADOW?

The Shadow is the entity created in our psyche when we attempt to separate good from evil. It is literally the embodiment of all the impulses and qualities we have thrust into the unconscious because the Ego finds them unacceptable. It is all that we are that we feel we should not be - sexual, angry, hostile, vulnerable, masochistic, self-hating, guilty, weak, etc. For men, showing compassion and emotion may be included, if these things are not acceptable to express in your family or culture. Social ideas, such as stereotypes about physical appearance, life roles of men and women, and sexual and racial prejudices reside here. Shadow also includes positive traits that you may have denied, such as power, justice, sexuality and creativity, as well as interest in and desire to practice shamanism, paganism, magick, etc. Anything you, your family, or society (consensus reality) deems as "forbidden" or "sinful" may be found in your Shadow Self. These things are not "evil", they simply are not perceived as being "acceptable" - again by "consensus reality". Each time we allow our thoughts to dwell upon strong, negative feelings, we add to the strength of our Shadow Self. In its mildest aspect, it is that part of us that we are uncomfortable accepting and hope that no one else sees. In its most radical aspect, it becomes Dr. Jekyl and Mr. Hyde,where two totally separate aspects and personalities share a single biological body, each oblivious to the other, but each having their outlet into the physical realm.

Shadow Self has also been called the Guardian of the Threshold. It stands in the threshold gate between the Subconscious and the Ego, refusing us passage until we have looked it in the face and acknowledged our own essential humanness. Some of the Archetypes of Gods and Goddesses associated with the Underworld (Shadow Self) are Hel, Hecate, Hades, Janus (a really good example of the Guardian), Persephone, Rhea, Cronus, Isis, Anubis, and the Crone. This may not be a complete list of all Gods and Goddesses associated with the Underworld, but it should give you a start, if you are interested in further study.

No shaman can deny the existence of the Shadow self. This being is very much alive and active in the OtherWorld realms. The shaman will encounter the Shadow self and its sly opposition when journeying, especially if the journey is for soul retrieval, healing, or problem solving. The shaman cannot attack the Shadow with the idea of destroying it, but rather must recognize it as a vital, important part of himself/herself. By confronting the Shadow self, the shaman learns to work with it, channeling its energy into shamanic ritual. A shaman knows that both so-called positive and negative energy are required for balance. A healthy person is a balanced person. By separating good from evil, we set up a conflict within ourselves that presages a potentially destructive downfall. Let me clarify here. To make moral judgments, "right" or "wrong", "good" or "evil", based on consensus reality within any social structure is absolutely necessary to maintain law and order. But when we internalize that judgment and reinforce it with strong negative emotion aimed at ourselves, the Shadow grows and becomes more difficult to maintain. Remember the Wiccan adage: "To light a candle is to cast a shadow". Any time a polarity is over-lived, without having been balanced by its counterpart, an eruption of the counterpart can be expected. A "boogey man" is created that begins to haunt us and make us fearful. Remember the old movie-line, "Who knows what evil lurks in the hearts of men? The Shadow knows!!!" It knows the deepest, darkest, ugliest secrets of your very existence. The more we separate ourselves from it, the more this "boogey man" grows in darkness, size and power. No fear is stronger than the fear of our own Shadow, and nothing is more destructive than the defenses we adopt to avoid confrontation.

WAYS THAT WE AVOID CONFRONTATION WITH SHADOW

There are many ways that we use to run from the Shadow, and there are many benefits that we get from doing so. Or so we think. As I was told by one of my disincarnate mentors, "Avoidance never was empowerment. Avoidance never leads to evolution." Avoidance is like Flu medication, it masks or curtails the symptoms, but when the medication wears off, we are well aware that the illness still exists. True self-empowerment comes from overcoming the problem, not just avoiding it. What we are really doing is denying ourselves the opportunities for growth we might otherwise have had, for Shadow is a TREMENDOUS teacher. When we confront the Shadow, we are forced to face ourselves, and learn about ourselves. In the Native American teachings, this is "Coyote Medicine". The Shadow Self is like a coyote. It lurks in the shadows and does its mischief. If it knows that it is glimpsed, for even a second, it slinks away. Coyote ALWAYS teaches you something about yourself, though you may or may not like the lesson. If you listen, the lessons may come easier, but if you turn your back and try to run, Coyote will dog your trail and bite you in the butt!

Here are six major ways that people run from the Shadow, what they get out of running from it, and the backlash that may hit them.

1. Some people deny it and never approach the confrontation at all. They think that if they don't look at Shadow, it doesn't exist. A false sense of strength is produced. They immerse themselves in hard work, good deeds, and charity - anything to keep themselves so busy they cannot see the Shadow. They become fanatical, living saintly lives driven by their fear. People see all the good they are producing and think that they are wonderful people, and would never believe anything bad about them. But this is a time bomb, just waiting to go off. Sooner or later, Shadow will come forth, to one degree or another. This is a classic example of wonderful people doing the sudden, unexpected, and tragic.

2. Some people try to destroy the Shadow through drugs and alcohol. Forgetfulness is the motivation for this strategy. They think that by "checking out", they can escape. But every time they come back, Shadow is waiting for them, and they must quickly escape again. The price they pay is the destruction of their lives and those around them whom they love. They lose their family, friends, jobs, security - the Shadow grows.

3. Claiming to be "enlightened" and to have "gone beyond" these things is a strategy favored by many "spiritual" people. They may live lives of asceticism and celibacy, claiming to no longer have shadow qualities, such as sexuality, anger, passion, desire, and self-interest. This is known as the "Savior" complex. Priests, ministers, gurus, and "enlightened masters" who adopt a posture of transcendent superiority have a great appeal to people with similar defense systems, who are able to escape their personal confrontations by identifying as members of an elite, "enlightened" group. Thus are cults born and perpetuated. Many religions fall under this category. This strategy produces a false sense of self-righteousness. But deep down inside, they are always afraid that someone will expose them, causing them to fall off their pedestal.

4. Some people become "superhuman", driving themselves to feats of self-sacrifice and accomplishment to "atone" for the Shadow Self, sometimes even to the point of masochism. They may have an air of superiority about them, but deep down inside, they are always afraid that someone will find out their weaknesses. They are not as strong as they want to be or try to be, and could crumble at any moment, either physically, mentally, or spiritually. This a classic problem among teenagers under tremendous pressure at home.

5. Some will admit Shadow Self, confessing it as a weakness or illness. "That's just the way I am, and I am powerless to change or control it. I am doing the best I can. I am trying, really." Sympathy and freedom are what they get out of this strategy - others won't blame them when things go wrong. They "know it is their fault, and they really are trying, but they just can't quite measure up - everyone just has to be patient with them." And so the misbehavior continues. Conversely, by claiming that it is their fault, they don't have to fix it because it diffuses the confrontation. The backlash is that they are too weak to overcome anything, and they suffer terribly from guilt, to the point of developing psychoses and needing counseling to deal with life.

6. Some will use projection - assigning these Shadow qualities to some other person or group (as in "the Devil" made me do it.) A spouse or co-worker may accuse you of being out of control or hard to work with, when everyone can see that it is actually them that is out of control or hard to get along with. Always be aware of the mirror. In every situation, are you mirroring for the other person or is the other person mirroring for you? Whose Shadow Self is showing here? The copout people use is that it is someone else's fault- they did it to you. If they would just stop what they are doing, everything would be fine. You are not responsible, and cannot help what happened. The backlash is loss of relationships important to you. You are always mad at someone, and you may develop paranoia.

We've talked about the Shadow Self, including what it is, how its created, how it expands and becomes empowered, and ways we try to avoid dealing with it. This is classic human nature. We all have a Shadow Side. But how do we deal with our Shadow Self? And what difference does it make?

There are several steps we can take to gain control of Shadow Self and our lives.

1)Become aware of when Shadow is around. By becoming aware of when you are being sideswiped by Shadow, you begin to see Shadow's effects in your life. The Shadow becomes more visible.

2)Name the Shadow. Come up with a cute short name for the specific behavior of each Shadow that haunts you, such as Mr. Mischief, the Judge, Sleazy Sue, or whatever is appropriate. This helps you to be more aware of how you feel or act when this Shadow figure is around.

3)Own your Shadow. Ask yourself how you contributed to this situation occuring. Remember you are the Creator in your life, not the victim! Own your own emotions and actions.

4)Resist the temptation, once you become aware of Shadow and its effects in your life, of pointing out other people's shadows to them, or trying to "fix" their lives for them. This is a very personal issue, and not one someone else can help with.

The difference it makes is how much control you actually have over your life, and how much awareness you have of your reality. When you begin to be aware of these things, you soon realize that reality truly is an illusion, one that can be changed by each of us at will, according to our needs. When we change our realities individually, one at a time, to enable us to evolve and grow, we affect the illusion of consensus reality around us, subtle at first, but the compound effect can bring about a quantum leap in evolution for mankind.

Unlike the modern man, shamans are trained in societies and cultures that have for centuries followed animistic traditions. Animism is a world of duality, where all things have an existence which is physical and material, and an existence which is immaterial and supernatural. In the shaman's world, the psyche, including the Shadow Self, are separate living, breathing entities, like the Selves of Huna, that must be met, understood and integrated like any other "helper". To accomplish this, the would-be shaman is subjected to extremely traumatic rituals designed to force the confrontation between conflicting aspects of the psyche. The unsuccessful attempt at integration by forced confrontation can easily leave the individual in the grasp of insanity. Those who succeed are shaped into beings of incredible stamina, wisdom and power. They have walked through the Valley of the Shadow of Death, and have earned the right to take up residence there.

There is such thing as a spiritual ego?

Osho, Bhagwan Rajneesh, and the Lost Truth
Do enlightened men have egos? In my younger idealistic years I would have said the answer is no. Rajneesh, Gurdjieff, and even J. Krishnamurti prove to me that they do. I became convinced that Rajneesh had an ego when I saw him on television in chains being transported from jail to an Oregon courthouse. In response to a reporter's question he looked into the television camera and spoke to his disciples saying "Don't worry. I'll be back." It was not what he said, but the look in his eyes that was positive proof for me. I could see his ego in action, calculating and manipulating. Once you see something that clearly no rationalizations can cover up the basic truth. Rajneesh was magnificently enlightened, but he was also profoundly egotistical.

For ordinary humans the ego is the center of awareness and the Void is perceived only at the periphery. People look at a picture taken by the Hubble Space Telescope and they see the Void as an outside object, not as a personal identity. When you become enlightened, either temporarily in a satori or permanently as a Buddha, the situation is reversed. Now the Void is your center of awareness and the ego is at the periphery. Ego does not die, it just no longer takes the center stage of your attention.

Enlightenment is a functional disassociation of identity. The human brain is a biologically created thinking machine that has evolved for both personal self-preservation and the survival of the species. The ego, which is a selfish motivating force, is needed to protect our colony of living cells (the physical body) from danger and to keep our cells replenished with food and water. If you did not have an ego you would not be able to think, speak, or find food, shelter, and clothing. The ego function is so vital for survival that the human brain evolved with two potential ego mechanisms, one a centralized ego and the second a larger and more diffuse backup system utilizing less central portions of the brain.

If the body and brain becomes physically ill with high fever and the centralized ego center is damaged, the backup ego mechanism may temporarily take over its function. This is ego displacement without enlightenment. The backup self-maintenance system keeps sleep walkers out of danger and helps enlightened human animals find food and the basics of life, so they do not physically die as a result of their own deep meditation.

Enlightened humans do not feel their more diffuse ego and thus they feel as free as space itself. In actuality ego is still present and working, just as our autonomic nervous system keeps on working whether we are aware of its function or not. You do not have to consciously tell your heart to beat 70 times a minute because it will keep on beating regardless of your awareness. The brain function that controls heart rate is automatic (autonomic) and does not need our consciousness to make it work.

Some enlightened human animals have become fooled by the phenomena of ego displacement and thought they no longer had any personal selfishness that could cause trouble. Meher Baba spent much of his life bragging about how great he was, yet at his center he felt perfectly egoless. He once even proclaimed that "No one loves me as much as I deserve to be loved." In truth Meher Baba was very egocentric and should have realized that even enlightenment is no excuse for bragging.

The same fundamental misjudgment plagued Acharya Rajneesh. He became fooled into thinking that he was above arrogance and greed, but that was simply not the case. The ego is an integral part of the structure of the human brain. It is not simply psychological, but neurological and hard wired into our neural pathways (see the scientific study of 'self''). The self-survival, self-defense mechanism we call 'ego' cannot be destroyed unless the physical body dies.

Even enlightened humans have to mind their manners and realize that the Atman is the wondrous phenomena they should promote, not their own fallible and temporary personalities. Ramana Maharshi had the right approach in this regard, and that is one reason he is still beloved by all. Ramana Maharshi promoted the Atman, the universal cosmic consciousness, but never his own mortal body and mind. ....
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.....hmmm..interesting..don't you think so?