Class Notes January - April 15, 2014

Meditation
Formless meditation, maintaining one-pointedness for a long time (tailadhara dhyan), neither negates nor destroys God with form or the meaningfulness of Avatar's Lila; it simply brings those two eternal principles inward and gives them consummate meaning.  Knowledge is now vast, infinite, and when one returns to form one has this infinite wealth to express for the highest good of others.  How else could Sri Ramakrishna speak for a whole week on a single topic?

If one meditates on emptiness long enough, one will begin to see the Light.  When going from bright daylight to a dark room, one's eyes need time to adjust.  Likewise, when one comes from meditation on earth, air, fire, etc., to meditation on formlessness, it will take time to "see."

How do I practice death when it only happens once in a lifetime?  By practicing meditation - at some point you will see your ego die previous to your body's demise.  That is the practice called the death of death.  Ego is your first presumption, so it is not really living.  How can the nonliving die?

Dharma
Q: Hearing about God causes one to give up all worldly responsibilities.  Should we do that?
Babaji: Yes, abandon your responsibilities in the world, but take them up in Brahman.

[While elucidating on the Four Parikarmas* combined with Sri Krishna's teaching that we are to be same-sighted with regard to friends, enemies, arbiters, etc., Babaji stated:] The Parikarmas help us keep our discrimination intact, and give us tools for interacting with various people.  Though there is the same Atman in all people, encountering the evil must call forth the tool of indifference in us.
*Four Parikarmas: the Four Refinements or Beneficial Attitudes: Friendliness to the happy, compassion for the suffering, appreciation for the virtuous, and indifference to the evil.

People say they are living in the present.  However, that is one of the phases of time that are connected to karma, in this case, prarabdha karma.  By living in the present, one merely goes from experience to experience without extracting essential knowledge.  So, you say you are living in your prarabdha karma?  I can believe that.  But where is the eternal moment?  That has to do with inaction.

Through Holy Company the knots of the heart are cut, even without knowing that it is happening.

Through what kind of cleverness can one escape karma, especially horrendous karma?  Cleverness will accomplish nothing, though it may work for a short time.  You have heard of the "hound of heaven" that is always tracking the soul?  Well "hell" has one too; its name is "Conscience."  "Here Conscience, here Conscience!"  One scarcely has to call it.  It is on the trail of the karmi.  Besides, there is the akashic record as well.  It is like a compartment in the Cosmic Mind.  All deeds are recorded there.  One will have to look at them upon leaving the body.

[Discoursing on the chart "Lack of Spiritual Success and its Causes,” Babaji explained:]
Unless one lives in a dharmic family, the poisons never get acknowledged and dealt with.  You want your bad karmas and samskaras to come up in holy company, not in family situations.  Holy company will utilize the scalpel of wisdom.  Taking refuge in pleasure and family — even in the body — provides no profound solution.

If the Self and Brahman are joined, then the world can join up.  But if the Self and Brahman are not realized as one, then the world remains as Maya.

Nonviolence and action-in-inaction are two elevated dharmic teachings.  Their implementation will remove all impediments in time.

When one starts with dharma, life leads naturally to Moksha, Freedom.  Most people go after artha (wealth) and kama (desire) and find dharma along the way.  When that happens, there is perhaps only a 50% chance that they will be led to Moksha.  Why? Because there is the taint of money and it is difficult to adjust and see clearly – even to feel worthy to step into the Light of Brahman.

Dharma and Moksha are like the two pieces of bread in a sandwich.  Artha and kama are covered by both.

Four Wet Paper Bags to punch out of:
1 - Ignorance, maya, fundamentalism, and the idea that objects are real and can satisfy you.  You have to punch your way out of this before you can get at #2.
2 - Religious convention.
3 - Dharma teachings – not moral laws, but dharmic laws.  Move beyond "thou shalt not kill," to "thou cannot kill."  The dharma is going to find you, and you will recognize it because it is about your relationship with God.
4 - Sadhana – one has to start practicing what one hears.  And this is the long way of saying "shruti."  One has to hear these principles, and practice them.