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manigma
India
1065 Posts |
 Posted - Jun 09 2010 : 05:57:47 AM
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My mother played a new CD of Mantras this morning (by Brahmrishi Swami Kumar). She listens to a lot of bhajans and kirtans.
This CD had beej (seed) mantras that were striking me at the core. I discussed a similar experience earlier:
http://www.aypsite.org/forum/topic....OPIC_ID=6785
Kirtanman mentioned Chittam Mantrah there from Shiva Sutra. I had read these Sutras from Osho's book: http://www.balbro.com/ss/sutra4.htm
"Chittam Mantrah": Consciousness is Mantrah
In my view (and experience), the consciousness is made of both Light (Energy) and Sound (Vibration).
Energy + Vibration = Mantrah
When the mantras were being uttered in the CD, I could see the light in my body rippling/vibrating. It was like the strings on a Sitar/Guitar are hit and vibrations are produced. I had to ask my mother to please stop the CD as it was giving me almost a paralysis attack (dismembering/misalignment of normal body mind consciousness).
Light and Sound are highly related. From my recent experience (posted at: http://www.aypsite.org/forum/topic....OPIC_ID=7919) I figured out that the Light came first as the seed and OM (the sound of OMkar / the unstruck sound) worked as a catalyst and gave birth to consciousness.
It feels like I have been given an answer and now I am trying to make a question to that answer. So I can understand what the answer means. Its truly enigma.
I know I will get the answer / clarification sooner or later. But just wanted to share and I would appreciate your input / insight. |
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Kirtanman
USA
1651 Posts |
Posted - Jun 09 2010 : 8:29:52 PM
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Hi Manigma,
I really like the translation Swami Lakshmanjoo gives of the Shiva Sutras, in the Supreme Awakening; his conclusions, which are a bit different than Osho's, might be useful for you to review, if you're interested.
It looks like the entire book is online, on Google Books - Shiva Sutras: The Supreme Awakening, by Swami Lakshmanjoo.
One of the main reasons for the recommendation, is that Osho's overview is based upon the first few sutras of the second/middle section of the Shiva Sutras, whereas Swami Lakshmanjoo's overview is based upon the entire Shiva Sutras (it's the difference between having, say, an overview of the Yoga Sutras based on a few sutras, vs. the entire Yoga Sutras).
And with all sincere respect to Osho (he has some good material), I disagree with his view and emphasis of what Cittam Mantrah is saying.
The Shiva Sutras begin each section by describing the experience of self at each of the three levels of spiritual awakening, and cittam mantrah is one of those key statements, one of the mahavakyas of Kashmir Shaivism, if you will.
And so, the beginning level of practice in Kashmir Shaivism is known, appropriately enough, as Anavopaya, the Individual level or means ... and it begins with:
Atma Cittam - Self is Limited Consciousness (i.e. the sense of "I am who I think I am" where all of us begin our spiritual sadhana).
The Individual means is comprised of form-oriented spiritual-practices ... mantra meditation, pranayama, etc. .... which takes us not only into inner silence, but into the experience that this silence is also, in some way, who and what we actually are.
In true tantric fashion, Kashmir Shaivsim takes physical and mental form, which hitherto had been obstacles to awareness, and helps them to be utilized as support for awareness (spiritual awakening).
And then, after we've been at it for a while, it's like consciousness flips inside out, at a point ... we've been noticing the dots on the wall our whole life, and all of a sudden we realize that the space between the dots is more fundamental than the dots; we transcend the clutter of form in consciousness (thoughts, feelings, energies, visions, siddhis, etc.), and begin to experience the formless witness.
I also use the analogy that the Individual means is like digging up through the soil, until we break out into the sunlight - because then, the light of formless consciousness begins to do a great deal of the "work" of finalizing our enlightenment; it's the grace we hear spoken of in all spiritual traditions.
This is our entry into what is known as Shaktopaya - the Empowered Means.
Then, instead of Atma Cittam ("I am who I think I am"), we realize that our true nature can be more accurately described as:
Cittam Mantrah
Consciousness is Mantra (the protection afforded by experiencing consciousness directly).
It (consciousness) isn't all those crazy ideas about perceptions, thoughts, feelings, etc. that that the thought-self thought were so important, and which it misunderstands so utterly, but rather, is the silent, witnessing awareness itself ... as are we, though as this stage, if we get this at all, we probably "mentally know it", rather than experience it directly (which is what the entire Empowered Means is designed to help us do ... to take us from "partial enlightenment to full enlightenment" as the Yoga Spandakarika says).
The yogic manuals of Kashmir Shaivism (the Yoga Spandakarika and the Vijnanabhairava Tantra) are focused entirely on this level (Shaktopaya) because it's the pivotal level; it's the bridge between the Divine (original liberated awareness), and the Individual.
At Living Unbound, we describe this second level by saying "Knowing is Unity", to highlight this bridge aspect.
Focusing on the forms in mind only is half a bridge, and we're all already way too familiar with those, even when we're a good way into our sadhana.
We need to know ourselves as formless consciousness (which precedes, sustains and supersedes all forms appearing in consciousness), by experiencing full, clear, unobstructed consciousness (what AYP calls the Witness) as much as possible.
Just as inner silence becomes realized as something we are, and so, our experience of the Witness (of our self as the silence, as opposed to the silence being an experience that "we", aka the thought-self, have), so our experience of the Witness finally shifts, so that our primary sense-of-self becomes the liberated awareness we each and all ever actually are, now.
And so, the first/highest section of the Shiva Sutras begins with:
Caitanyamatma - "The independent state of supreme consciousness is the reality of everything".
And so, the Shiva Sutras' three sections begin:
1.1 Caitanyamatma
2.1 Cittam Mantrah
3.1 Atma Cittam
.. with each "starting sutra" being a description of the sense-of-self at each of those levels.
At Living Unbound, we have the same three levels, in that same order, described by the following statements, which refer to the fulfilled experience of those levels:
Awareness is Wholeness
Knowing is Unity
Living is Harmony
That's why I say that "mind is a sense and not a self" --- it's in the middle; it's (consciousness, mind, whatever you want to call that function of reflective awareness .... awareness aware of itself) the bridge, the key (which is why I went into this extended explanation. )
How important is Cittam Mantrah?
So important that out of two yogic (practices-oriented) agamas in non-dual Kashmir Shaivism (Spandakarika, Vijanabhairava) ..... two are dedicated to Shaktopaya; the Empowered means; the level of Awakening identified by realizing that consciousness itselfis the mantra that leads to enlightenment - by the sutra Cittam Mantrah.
Kashmir Shaivism emphasizes this single point as strongly as it emphasizes anything.
The reason is rather simple:
If you truly understand this (Cittam Mantrah; Consciousness is Mantra), you can't avoid enlightenment; if you don't understand this, you can't experience enlightenment.
Practicing clear, uncluttered consciousness builds the bridge from the non-dual awareness we actually are (but which we don't consciously experience as our self, fully, in the early and middle stages of sadhana) to the individual self we think we are ........ thus connecting all three levels into one whole beautiful reality now, everything on one side, One on the other ... the one non-dual "coin" of reality we each and all ever actually are, now.
Wholeheartedly,
Kirtanman
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manigma
India
1065 Posts |
Posted - Jun 10 2010 : 06:46:45 AM
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quote:
Originally posted by Kirtanman
consciousness itself is the mantra that leads to enlightenment
Thanks Kirtanman.
I do understand that Consciousness leads the way to everyone's Enlightenment.
While Chitta is being constantly supplied with information, its evolution is blocked, Chitta will evolve very quickly if you prevent the passage of information from the Indryas. Eyes, Nose, Tongue, Ears, Skin. Chitta becomes independent then. - Swami Satyananda Saraswati
That's my only meditation. Let Chitta flow free while I remain a silent witness (Samadhi).
I am not the Chitta. I am that which existed prior to it (per Nisargadatta).
The reason I made this post was to get clarified/understand on how Chitta/Consciousness came into existence in the first place and what it is made up of.
How I am / the self is being identified through Chitta.
Thanks again for your input and I will be reading Shiva Sutra by Swami Lakshmanjoo today. |
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Kirtanman
USA
1651 Posts |
Posted - Jun 10 2010 : 9:59:29 PM
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quote:
Originally posted by manigma
quote:
Originally posted by Kirtanman
consciousness itself is the mantra that leads to enlightenment
Thanks Kirtanman.
I do understand that Consciousness leads the way to everyone's Enlightenment.
While Chitta is being constantly supplied with information, its evolution is blocked, Chitta will evolve very quickly if you prevent the passage of information from the Indryas. Eyes, Nose, Tongue, Ears, Skin. Chitta becomes independent then. - Swami Satyananda Saraswati
That's my only meditation. Let Chitta flow free while I remain a silent witness (Samadhi).
Cool; "all good"!
"Neither accept nor reject; simply rest in the true nature of the Self." ~Abhinavagupta
quote:
I am not the Chitta. I am that which existed prior to it (per Nisargadatta).
Yes; exactly; the explanation would have been even longer to go into it, but that's why we have Chittam for the two levels involving form (Shakti), but Chaitanya for the level involving original, subjective awareness.
Chittam, in its most refined condition, is Vimarsha, awareness aware of itself; Chaitanya is Prakasha (literally "beyond space") - the light (<- figuratively speaking ) of original awareness-self; this very ever-liberated wholeness (that each and all of us ever actually are, now).
quote:
The reason I made this post was to get clarified/understand on how Chitta/Consciousness came into existence in the first place and what it is made up of.
I got that; sorry for not answering it more directly.
Chitta isn't made up of anything.
Everything is made up of Chitta - really, actually, literally.
Awareness-consciousness is primary --- all else --- even light, even sound, is subsidiary to it; Chitta is not light; Chitta is not sound; light and sound are Chitta.
Chitta is utterly its own; the only thing it "belongs to" is the more still, more infinite part of itself (Chaitanya) - as Shakti belongs to, and arises from Shiva; as Bhairavi belongs to and arises from Bhairava.
quote:
How I am / the self is being identified through Chitta.
That's the part I was attempting to answer by outlining the model that the Shiva Sutras articulates so clearly and beautifully.
Even Chitta (Vimarsha; reflective awareness - awareness aware of itself), arises from Chaitanya, the inherently unbound awareness both writing and reading these words; the very ground of all which allows us to wholeheartedly sing in celebration:
Shivo'ham
I Am Shiva.
This that we are precedes all conditioning, all form, all material, all mind, all spirit ----- this that we are is actually primary; we are the subject who can never be an object; we don't arise from anything; all arises from this loving living infinite inherently perfect and present awareness, right here, right now.
Really.
quote:
Thanks again for your input and I will be reading Shiva Sutra by Swami Lakshmanjoo today.
You're quite welcome; if my explanation isn't clear for any reason, I think you'll find that Swami Lakshmanjoo's will be; he's very, very, very clear about all this; beautifully so.
Wholeheartedly,
Kirtanman
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manigma
India
1065 Posts |
Posted - Jun 11 2010 : 07:25:33 AM
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Thanks once again Kirtanman for your time to explain all this.
I must admit that I have a very poor vocabulary for words in Sanskrit, Hindi and English.
Most of what you (and Swami Lakshmanjoo) say goes right over my head. But what I have read so far in Shiva Sutra by Swami Lakshmanjoo (upto Second Level Awakening) does match / confirm with my present state and experiences. Its a great book.
I would like to share these words by Osho:
When I roam the lofty mountains I feel like my soul is raised on high and covered like the peaks in never melting caps of snow. And when I descend into the valleys I feel deep and profound like them and my heart fills with mysterious shadows. The same thing happens at the edge of the sea. There I merge with the surging waves; they pound and roar within me. When I gaze at the sky I expand. I become boundless, unlimited. When I look at the stars, silence permeates me; when I see a flower the ecstasy of beauty overwhelms me. When I hear a bird singing, it's song is an echo of my own inner voice, and when I look into the eyes of an animal I see no difference between them and my own. Gradually my separate existence has been effaced and only God remains. So where shall I look for God now? How shall I seek him? Only he is; I am not.
I was in the hills, and what they wanted to tell me was transmitted through their silence. The trees, the lakes, the rivers, the brooks, the moon and the stars were all speaking to me in the language of silence. And I understood. The words of God were clear to me, I could only hear him when I became silent. Not before.
What shall I say to you? Listen to the stars in the sky. I wish to say the same thing their silent, dancing lights are saying. I wish to say that whatever is, is beyond the power of speech, beyond the reach of hearing.
Creation springs from love. It is nourished by love. It moves towards love and eventually merges with love. And you ask me why I say love is God! This is why.
And a few words by me:
I was driving home on a very hot day. The air conditioner was on and I was hearing Krishna Das. The road was clear.
Then I saw a poor boy walking barefoot in front of me on the melting concrete road, looking for scrap / junk so he can sell it and earn his livelihood. He was carrying a big sack on his back and was wearing dirty rotten clothes.
When I saw him I shrunk and my mind stopped. For a moment I thought of stopping my car and giving my Adidas sandals to him. I slowed the car but just when I drove pass him I looked at the boy's feet again and saw they had become so hard and sturdy that they no longer needed the shoes. He might not have had a good meal from months but he had a smile on his face and was singing a song with joy. He was absolutely carefree that he didn't even notice me driving by.
I felt so poor.
But that was for a moment as well. |
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Kirtanman
USA
1651 Posts |
Posted - Jun 13 2010 : 9:31:31 PM
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quote:
Originally posted by manigma
But that was for a moment as well.
Exactly; beautiful!
Life is alive; living, unbound - and your words, in your post, describe this reality, and a clear understanding of this reality, as well as I've ever read anywhere, in any language.
It's really quite simple:
We open until we contain all, thus living all, thus knowing and being the sheer freedom, the sheer rightness and beauty of this holy, whole life we each and ever are now, living unbound.
But only for a moment.
Until the next eternal moment arises now, and we get to enjoy-experience it again (even the enjoyment-experience that's not necessarily enjoyable, such as you describe so eloquently above).
It's not the content of the experience that matters ..... it's the experiencing, as you and Osho both describe beautifully.
Life is Living.
We each and all can be, too.
Cittam Mantrah - Consciousness is Mantrah; all beautiful, all sacred, all holy, all whole .... only limited and limiting ideas can try to say otherwise.
Bit by bit they fall away ... and here we are, now.
Wholeheartedly,
Kirtanman |
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manigma
India
1065 Posts |
Posted - Jun 18 2010 : 12:52:16 PM
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Another reading that matches to my experience and the law of manigma... haha. 
How does the limitless self gets condensed into the finite body/mind self?
How the limitless sky enters into the pot and maintains a separate identity forgetting its true nature?
His breath produces sound vibrations. These sound vibrations contain the seeds or the laws of creation. Brahma became aware of these laws as soon as God willed it. Brahma began his creation with the guidance he got from the vibrations received from the God's heart or breath. Is this possible? Can vibrations amount to much?
Modern science says all matter is condensed energy. Energy is matter in a state of high vibrations. Vibrations produce sound. Vibrations and sound are at the root of all creations.
http://www.healthandyoga.com/html/r...s/ays177.asp
Bingo! 
Another thing I wanted to share is that few years ago when my Kundalini was awakened.
I was reading my most favorite book 'Adhyatama Upanishad'- by Osho for the third time. http://balbro.com/heart/
Suddenly my hand automatically picked the pen lying next to me and made a big cross in front of the book. Then my hand placed the pen aside and made a gesture (pointing the finger at the book) and then pointing the finger at the sky.
And then in front of me. It was like it told me that you no longer need these books. I am the book of all books and I will give you what you are looking for.
I was doubtful that I was possessed by some Deva/higher being who will use my body to meditate / gain some siddhis and then throw me away like a Coke can after drinking it.
But now I know I am not possessed by any spirit or being. It is my own energy.
The Shakti within.
http://www.healthandyoga.com/html/r...s/ays156.asp |
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manigma
India
1065 Posts |
Posted - Jun 24 2011 : 08:58:42 AM
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Chittam mantrah.
By intensive awareness, the mind of a yogi becomes Mantra.
~ Shiva Sutras (Translated by Swami Lakshmanjoo)
By remaining aware of repeating a mantra during meditation... one would eventually become so aware that it would discover that Mind too, like a mantra, repeats continuously. The thoughts, the desires, the impulses...
Mind is like a mantra that repeats non-stop during our waking and dreaming states.
The mantra we use for our meditation (Om namah, I am etc) is used temporarily, but Mind is the real mantra that is repeating forever.
One has to become intensively aware to realise that Mind itself is the greatest mantra.
Then the yogi witnesses the Mind 24/7 as we witness a mantra during our meditation.
This is so cool.
Chittam mantrah.
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Chittam Mantrah
