If you never
read another item on Satsang, do read this.
The phenomena is real and access to a master can and will help you
realize and experience it. What it all
means though remains unclear except to certainly provide the individual bliss
and certainty in terms of a higher level of sensory attainment. It is possible to experience the light and
also the sound and to associate this with the spiritual presence of the master. Yet it is different from the luminous dream
experience in which we commune with our ancestors in case you ever wondered
where ancestor worship comes from.
I do not feel
any closer to communication with the Ubermind but do understand the conscious
external reality that we are all sharing in.
Certainly, an expectation of a blissful afterlife generates just that. The happy hunting ground is just that. A self-realized afterlife made real for the
departed soul. Makes you wonder about
those seventy virgins:-)
A strong
spiritual presence will lift you through several levels of spiritual attainment.
It takes acceptance and focus in quelling the mind. This is an excellent idea anyway as it
improves ones mental health generally.
Satsang:
The Power of Spiritual Presence
March 1, 2007
By STEVE TAYLOR
—
Enlightened people are
like spiritual dynamos: they have a very strong presence which touches the
people they come into contact with, transmitting something of their
enlightenment to them. Even people who aren’t at all “spiritual” usually feel a
sense of well-being in their presence, and so feel attracted to them without
knowing why. And for people who have made some spiritual progress already, the
effect can be extremely powerful.
Contact with an
enlightened person may enable them to make the final “jump” to permanent
enlightenment themselves. This is one of the reasons why many spiritual
traditions place so much emphasis on the role of a guru. The guru is so
important not just because of the advice and guidance he can give you, but
because he can transmit his spiritual power to you, giving you a taste of
enlightenment and speeding up your spiritual development. (In Sanskrit, this is
called satsang, literally
“good company.”)
Paul Brunton and
Ramana Maharishi
The early 20th century
author and spiritual teacher Paul Brunton became aware of this when he visited
the ashram of the great sage Ramana Maharishi, while travelling around India in
search of spiritual wisdom (as described in his book A Search in Secret India). Brunton
knew that Ramana was a truly enlightened man the first time he met him, someone
who had completely transcended his ego and become one with ultimate reality. He
felt the spiritual effect of his satsang straight
away. He sensed that “a steady river of quietness seems to be flowing near me,
that a great peace is penetrating the inner reaches of my being.” While sitting
near him, he realised that his mind was becoming more still, and suddenly all
of the intellectual questions he’d had about spiritual matters no longer seemed
important. The only question in his head now was, “Does this man, the
Maharishee, emanate the perfume of spiritual peace as the flower emanates
fragrance from its petals?”1
At the end of his
first visit to the Ashram, Brunton was sitting quietly while the sage was
meditating. He felt a sense of awe building up inside him, as a powerful force
started to fill the room, emanating from Ramana. Ramana opened his eyes and
gazed at him and he felt that he was aware of his every thought and feeling. He
felt that a telepathic current was passing between them, that Ramana was
transmitting his deep serenity to him, and began to feel a sense of euphoria
and lightness. He felt that his own being became one with Ramana’s, and that he
had transcended all problems and all desires.
After this, Brunton
resumed his travels around India, meeting magicians and miracle workers and
self-proclaimed gurus who are less enlightened than they claimed to be, and
eventually returned to the Maharashi’s ashram. Again he experienced an
“ineffable tranquillity” when sitting close to him, and again he experienced
revelations which he was sure were “nothing else than a spreading ripple of
telepathic radiation from this mysterious and imperturbable man.”2 And finally, after a
period of wrestling with his own thoughts and his intellect, he had an
experience of genuine enlightenment which changed him forever:
I find myself outside
the rim of world consciousness. The planet which has so far harboured me
disappears. I am in the midst of an ocean of blazing light. The latter, I feel
rather than think, is the primeval stuff out of which worlds are created, the
first state of matter. It stretches away into untellable infinite space,
incredibly alive.3
Andrew Cohen and
H.W.L. Poonja
The American spiritual
teacher Andrew Cohen had a similar experience when he first met the Indian
teacher who became his guru, H.W.L. Poonja – who was, coincidentally (or
perhaps not!), a direct disciple of Ramana. Cohen had had profound spiritual
experiences before, but had spent many years feeling frustrated and
disillusioned, yearning for spiritual liberation but being disappointed by a
series of other teachers. Cohen asked Poonja whether it was important to make
an effort in spiritual practice, and he replied, “You don’t have to make any
effort to be free.” And at that moment Cohen experienced enlightenment:
His words penetrated
very deeply, I turned and looked out into the courtyard outside his room and
inside myself all I saw was a river – in that instant I realised that I had
always been Free. I saw clearly that I never could have been other than Free
and that any idea or concept of bondage had always been and could only ever be
completely illusory.4
After this, Cohen
spent three weeks with Poonja and found the liberation he’d been yearning for.
After a week or so, he “surrendered” to his guru, let go of his own identity
and everything which made up his life. He felt himself become one with Poonja,
and began to experience “waves of bliss and love that at times were so strong
that I felt my body wouldn’t be able to contain it.” And from that point on,
although his initial euphoria faded a little, he had a constant sense of “being
always in the present with much contentment and calm. I feel no desire for
other than what IS.”5
And now that he had attained moksha (freedom) himself, Cohen
realised that other people were affected by his presence in the same way that
he had been by Poonja’s. Friends who spent time with him found that they
experienced a powerful sense of bliss and freedom too. He became a spiritual
teacher, giving talks and holding retreats, and found that people were
naturally drawn to him, and that around him they would “easily and often
instantly… have profound realisations, insights into their true nature and
powerful feelings of love, joy and bliss.”6
My wife and I went to
one of Andrew’s talks several years ago in Manchester, England, and for days
afterwards Pam – my wife – felt like a different person. There was a feeling of
freedom inside her, a sense that – in her words – “nothing mattered, that I
didn’t have any problems. I didn’t want anything because I was happy as I was.
My life was quite stressful at that point but suddenly none of the stress could
affect me.” And she’s sure that this wasn’t so much because of what Andrew actually
said but the effect of simply being there, in his presence.
Russell Williams
I was a little jealous
because I didn’t have any of those feelings – at that time I was taking a more
intellectual approach to spiritual matters, and was so busy trying to understand
what Andrew was saying conceptually that I must have been shut off from the
feeling dimension.
A couple of years
before then, I’d started to visit a spiritual teacher called Russell Williams,
and also took a largely conceptual approach to his teachings. Russell – who I
still go to see now – is 85 years old, and has been the president of the
Manchester Buddhist Society for over 50 years, even though he’s not
specifically a Buddhist. He doesn’t chant or meditate or read Buddhist
scriptures, and doesn’t adhere to or promote any particular set of teachings.
He’s a humble self-realised man, who talks about the most profound spiritual
truths and the most intense spiritual states as if they’re the most simple and
natural things.
In my first years of
going along to Russell’s twice weekly meetings, I used to wonder why most
people didn’t seem to be paying attention to him. He was saying some of the
most profound things I’d ever heard and people didn’t seem to be listening –
they were just staring into space, or sitting with their eyes closed. They
rarely asked questions, seeming content to let Russell be silent, when as far
as I was concerned he was full of wisdom which I wanted to absorb.
But about three years
ago I began to realise why this was. Perhaps I’d changed, become less
interested in the conceptual side of spirituality, or perhaps I’d finally
completed a long process of getting attuned to the atmosphere at the meetings,
but when I went there I started to experience very strange, pleasurable states
of consciousness. Even when I’d been taking a conceptual approach, I’d often
experienced feelings of peacefulness and well-being, which sometimes lasted for
a couple of days afterwards. But this was something stronger.
The first time it
happened, I was staring at Russell while he was speaking to me, and began to
feel very relaxed and calm, as if the flow of my life-energies was becoming
smoother and lighter. And then, all of a sudden, everything became unfamiliar –
the light became brighter, the colours began to merge and the distinctions
between people and objects began to fade away. My main feeling, however, was of
a powerful sense of strangeness – the scene was completely alien, as if I was
suddenly on a different planet. Even though it was accompanied with a sense of
exhilaration, I was a little scared and pulled away from it.
Over the following
months I had the same experience several times again, and I learned to relax
and trust it. I let the sense of strangeness overcome me, as the light in the
room became brighter and all objects began to shimmer and merge into one
another. The light seemed to be flowing out and immersing everything in its
brightness. The room was filled with this beautiful shimmering haze of golden
light, and I was filled with a deep serenity, a glow of intense well-being
filling my whole body. I could feel it flowing through my legs and my feet, as
if I’d taken a sedative of some kind. And even when I didn’t have this
particular experience at the meetings, I usually had a very powerful feeling of
calmness and serenity inside. I was often aware that my breathing had slowed
down dramatically, and when I left I found myself doing everything very slowly,
with a natural mindfulness. My mind was still and quiet, and outside everything
looked beautiful and alive.
After a few months I
was talking to one of the members of the group, and said to him, “I’ve been
having really very strange experiences here over the past few months.” I tried
to describe them, and he laughed and said, “So now you know why we’ve all been
coming here for so long! Now you’re really a
member of the society.”
I still have these
experiences now, and I’m certain that they’re the result of satsang, of being in the presence of
an enlightened person. The experience of the scene becoming unfamiliar and the
light becoming brighter usually only happens when Russell is talking directly
to me. In these moments I can almost feel spiritual power radiating from him
and flowing into me, feel my own life-energy being affected by his.
The Sources of Satsang
The big question is: why do enlightened people have
this strange ability to generate spiritual experiences in others, this power to
“transmit” their enlightenment to the people around them?
Spiritual experiences
induced by satsang strongly
suggest that the esoteric concept of an “aura” has a basis in fact. They
suggest that our being or life-energy isn’t just confined to our own mind or
body – it radiates out from us, creating an atmosphere (or aura) which can
affect the people we come into contact with. The auras of most people don’t
appear to be particularly strong, or at least don’t have particularly strong
negative or positive qualities, so that we don’t usually feel anything palpable
from them. But we’ve all met certain people who we instinctively recoil from.
We might not even
exchange any words with them but they still fill us with a sense of unease or
even fear or dread. These are people who have a strong “bad aura” around them,
perhaps because their life-energy is heavily poisoned with negative emotions
and egotism. But with enlightened people, of course, the exact opposite
happens. Their life-energy is so intensified and stilled, and has such powerful
positive qualities, that they “transmit” waves of calm and bliss to everyone
around them.
But spiritual
experiences are more than just feelings – they are also experiences of vision,
insight and revelation. And one of the most important aspects of satsang experiences, I believe,
is that they show that spiritual illumination is also communicable. Feelings of bliss can
certainly spread from person to person – and so can the vision of the oneness
of the universe, the awareness that the essential reality of the universe is a
limitless ocean of Spirit, and the experience of transcending the ego and being
reborn as a deeper and higher Self. These experiences are completely
transferable – under the right circumstances, they can be passed from an
enlightened person to others without any loss of intensity.
There are two basic
types of spiritual experiences (in the sense I’m using the term). The first are
ecstatic experiences caused by a disruption of the homeostasis of the human
organism. These can occur as a result of fasting, sleep deprivation, drugs,
breathing exercises, pain, dancing, and so on. All of these activities can put
us “out of homeostasis” – by changing our body temperature, blood pressure or
metabolic rate, causing dehydration and exhaustion or chemical changes – and
when this happens there’s a chance that we’ll experience a higher state of consciousness.
(Although this certainly doesn’t always happen, of course. Most of the time the
only effect that depriving yourself of sleep and food often has is to make you
feel miserably tired and hungry.)
The second type of
spiritual experiences are more serene and calm states which occur when there is
an intensification and stillness of life-energy (or vitality) inside us. This
can happen in any situation when we’re very relaxed, when there’s peacefulness
around us, and when the mental chatter inside our heads fades away. In
meditation, we make a conscious effort to intensify and still our life-energy
by being inactive, by withdrawing our attention from the world around us, and
by focusing on a mantra (or a candle flame or on our breathing or any other object)
to slow down and quieten our mental chatter. As a result, meditation is
probably the most effective way of generating spiritual experiences.
However, they can also
happen more spontaneously – in natural surroundings, for example, when there’s
peacefulness around you and the beauty of nature has a similar effect to a
mantra in meditation, focusing your attention and quietening your mental
chatter. They often occur when people are listening to music or contemplating
works of art. Certain sports are also very conducive to spiritual experiences,
such as long-distance running or swimming. This is also probably part of the
reason why spiritual experiences can occur during or after sex. The sheer
pleasure of sex can have the effect of shifting our attention away from our
ego-minds, which may fall silent as a result.
Spiritual experiences
caused by satsang clearly
belong to this second type. Contact with an enlightened person has the effect
of intensifying and stilling our life-energy. He or she gives us an extra input
of energy – the “current” or “telepathic radiation” which Paul Brunton was
aware of. At the same time, the sheer power of an enlightened person’s presence
stuns the ego-mind into silence and brings our chattering thoughts to a halt.
As a result, we attain the same state of inner stillness and intensified
life-energy which we reach after periods of intense and very focused
meditation.
However, satsang isn’t just a phenomenon
which can affect us as individuals; it also has an important bearing upon the
concept of collective spiritual awakening. It’s now almost a cliché to state
the human race as a whole may be on the threshold of an evolutionary jump, a
collective shift to a higher level of consciousness which will give rise to a
new era of true spirituality and harmony. Some people find this idea
far-fetched – perhaps understandably so when you look at the state of the world
today – but satsang experiences
show us a process by which this transformation could occur. They show us that
enlightenment is highly contagious.
After all, it’s surely
not just wholly enlightened
individuals who affect the people around them. Anybody who has become
spiritually developed to a degree will have some power to affect the people
around them. And so it’s possible that a kind of positive cycle might take
place – as more people become spiritually developed, they will “transmit” their
insight and well-being to the people around them, who will in turn transmit
their spirituality to the people around them, and so on. It may be that once a
certain critical threshold has been reached – once a certain number of people
have become enlightened, or once the collective spiritual power of the human
race has built up to a certain degree – a great wave of spiritual illumination
will spread through the world like a forest fire; a process of “spiritual
transmission” building up power and intensity, and eventually leading to an
Omega point of permanent change.
This may still sound
like wishful thinking – but then again, the experience of satsang itself is miraculous,
showing that our apparent individuality is an illusion, and that we are parts
of an indivisible ocean of consciousness.
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