On Mental Culture

One needs a teacher.

Perceptions build up a fund of memories; indulgence follows. To be free of sense perception is freedom. This can be accomplished through meditation.

The aim here is to refine perception. For an object to be perceived, felt by you, it must fulfill certain conditions in the areas of both rupa – physical – and nama – mental. Most of us do not perceive truly. Our perceptions are false. For example, the concept of ‘walking’ is an ignorant statement.

When successful, for the duration of the meditation session you do not have lobha (greedy), dosa (angry) thoughts.

To understand motion, breath should be watched.

One mediates with an all-embracing awareness. Awareness of the personality. Awareness of the body. Also mindfulness of feelings … "Now lust is present; now self-loathing is present." You are no longer undergoing an experience – you are observing.

The practice is to sit still; to restrain the body. A man is a conqueror if he has conquered himself. In meditation we find out how rebellious our various selves are.

In the case of fears, one should apply mindfulness to them fearlessly. One should continue the practice – not get lost in the fear.

Mediation: no effort, no struggle. Every thought that arises you drop. Ultimate goal: [temporary] death of the mind.

It is necessary to slow down for the duration of the practice. The same for emotions.

[Intensive practice] attacks our belief in an abiding personality. Might realize during meditation that everything moves. Very fact of observation might be subject to motion, change itself.

It can be very difficult to get rid of a particular perception. Say you can’t get rid of a hateful thought. Start by being mindful about this particular perception – 2, 3 sittings and you get rid of it.

Stand outside your most intimate feelings and sensations.

If one drinks beverages made of glucose, phosphoric acid and caffeine [Coca-cola], it will not be possible to calm oneself down enough to satisfy the requirements of this discipline.

We must purify our intellect, our emotions. Which should take precedence? The first thing to do is refine the emotions.

Cemetery meditation … not a morbid preoccupation. For certain people it is needed to turn them from love of body. Someone [a serious practitioner] involved in beauty of the world might be given a cemetery meditation, for example.

An absolute objective point of view is necessary in this discipline. Only then can we know our true face.

When you have the experience of absolute nothing, the best thing to do is to say nothing about it.

Danger colors are red, orange and black: tiger colors.

The body is a miniature universe: there is nothing outside which cannot be found inside.

The moment you cut off stimulus from the senses, you will have demons attack you.

One does not need gem stones to concentrate on a color; one may use earth colors.

A curse from a former life can often be removed by meditation, reciting mantras and other specialized procedures.

Some possible effects of concentration practice: radiation and light emanating from the body; feelings of extreme joy; awareness of distant things. All these are hindrances to attaining excellence.

Yogi contemplated on a bull. After one or two months of intense practice, he behaved as a bull. His teacher conceded he was a realized being.

[Desani]: I could see the body I created. I could make others see it. It took years to get rid of it.

Mind over matter is a phrase parroted often. In its truest sense one can make a tree half dead and half flourishing through concentration.

Being able to walk on water arises out of the second chakra.

One test for the power of unlimited perception is to name what is in my cloth bag.

An extremely excellent mind can concentrate for 10 minutes on one subject. Examples of this heightened consciousness include projection of the mind. Note that In cases of projection, objects on the left may appear on the right.

Beings can arise spontaneously with all their limbs … entirely apart from and without any sexual birth, etc.

Great beings in many traditions can communicate by planting a thought in your mind while you are sleeping. It is an act of grace.

Yogi with stilled mind: much sattva. Such a person with an object – his chitta is established in that object. The more sattva, the more he knows the object. The more clearly he penetrates into the pure nature of the object. Consciousness must be pure. Would forget himself because he puts himself in the object of concentration. Forgetful of cognizer and cognition. Consciousness would acquire the shape of the object being contemplated.

All is contained in mind / thought of the creator. That is how you create a being … a saint or a devil.

If an individual were unprepared for this [rigorous] spiritual endeavor, then there will be disastrous result. Energy moves down to lower world – base of spine. Likely to become a devil. Illustrates lower worlds, down to the soles of the feet. Such a person is now a black magician. When it moves upward it is a spiritual force – must have a sattva nature.

I have no scruples in saying that I believe in unseen power. There are bodiless forces we cannot see. They are as real as electromagnetism.

One might lengthen the tongue and put it down the throat to get a kind of trance. Buddha naturally had a tongue this long.

Sankha paksha [?] – will determines action. This is a technique using the eye. Master of this can stop a bird from moving; paralyze the bird; makes it come to his hand.

Arupa Loka … highest gods and arch-angels … some have immense power. Power to give people things. People with access to these things do not have to demonstrate them to you.

Physical body (male physical power; female attractiveness); Prana body (breath body); Mental body (mental techniques); Intelligence body (Leonardo da Vinci); Bliss body.

From [intensive] practice you notice unpleasant sensations which are always present but you do not know it .. they are occurring, disappearing all the time. Direct experience of misery. Almost impossible to travel in a bus (verified by direct experience).

The body is fire: a home of suffering. [While this sounds like a platitude, Desani was relating how a serious practitioner of a particular yoga described his experience.]

There in a No. 2 body – subtle – same shape and form – even to clothing. Astral projection is in the area. One must imagine being outside the body .. might make you insane or a literal magician. There was a German experimenter who did not drink water for two days to make his will strong. He drank salt water. Willed to reach the water across the room and by the technique of causing stress – next to the water – willed that his body come and got back in the body and drank as much as he wanted to. He succeeded. When developing an intense thirst for something we cannot have .. this is the closest to a peta state.

Body, feeling, sensation, mind and content of mind in absolute present. When recalling past experience you do it in the absolute present. Undergoing experience of a prior event is always in the present. It might take six months to refine the consciousness near to the absolute present.

Hitler could be described as a medium for forces.

Prana yama. It is dangerous to tamper with breathing. Inhalation. Breath in at count of 8 is controlled breathing .. can induce a mood. Inhalation. 8 in 32 hold 32 exhale.

Consciousness becomes finer and finer. There is a period when he says he is not breathing. Six months practice … 14 hours/day. Thought of breathing in and out disappears in due course. Mind becomes extremely tranquil. Three thoughts merge: Quietening … not loss of consciousness. Then arises a reflex image which leads to a third image. Third varies: soft touch on skin. Intimate and personal. Sensation of calming, jewel, gemstone, round object, chain, flower, lotus, smoke cloud. You need an experienced teacher.

Mantra shastra. Natural true sound of fire. Fire can be produced by that sound.

Certain foods can kill. Wholesome food for some may cause illness in others. What might be good for some will be deadly for others. Same applies to spiritual endeavors.

There have been times when Desani had a very considerable desire for siddhis .. and found them. [Once your start getting them] siddhis will come till you’re face is blue. Some fast, some take a lifetime. Not a gain, a curse. Clairvoyance is a curse.

Example of power of a particular mantra: one looks upon a person with extreme hatred, with terrific anger. At night that person kills himself.

Mantra: actually invoking an entity, teacher says call me forth by this particular invocation.

Practices involved with entities never exceed 90 days.

Gunas. Three irreducibles … when in perfect balance they cannot be discerned. If that particular theory is accepted there is no difference between a rose and thought of a rose. The yogi can simply manifest the object of his contemplation.

Sleep would be full of suffering if you could be aware of all the events in sleep.

It is possible for a yogi to change his citta-vritis to a kusala state at the moment of death. Make a decision to be good.

To understand how inner man functions, watch the body. In this very body are the worlds arising; also in this very body is the cessation of the law.

Meditation instructions:

• While slowing breathing: Notice hardly noticeable breath … then get back to watching the breath. To analyze is wrong, do not find, do not discover, just barely note.

• When you continue looking at a kasina or any other practice it will eventually produce a state of extreme concentration. Then a new image will arise.

• The round colored disk will disappear and be replaced by another object. The second object is very, very important. Must be a visual image. Might lead to mentally seeing. You should notice the image and then get back to watching the motion of your abdomen.

• Number two image: Called the ‘means, the way’ to achieve excellence. Then a new image. A red moon might appear. Might feel a subtle touch. This would be the result, the fruit of the practice.

• Blue kasina might change to a green moon. Then concentrate on the new image. Then the mind dies, dead (rises above) ajna chakra and goes to higher mind. Then a third image arises. Guard it. You are in the neighborhood of the first jhana which is needed for Nibbana.

A corpse being contemplated might turn to a beautiful young man or woman. Then another image rises of a very small beautiful ‘idol’.

Death: conclusion of a process. The last state of consciousness is very important as it is decisive in making the next effect. The last moment is conditioned by habit.

When asked to concentrate on one object you could develop the most remarkable control over your mind to prevent it from slipping into Bhavanga. In this way – at death – you pick your image.

Clairvoyance. Say you are clairvoyant by the grace of God. Desani is delighted to hear this BUT these results can come about by techniques without help of god.

People talk to an organ [of the body, in India] … the grossest delusion. One should not be aware of the movement of the heart. Completely injurious to the being. May manifest in a future life. Drugs, etc. included in this. Applies to all kinds of invoking of entities.

Desani: knows more about mantra shastra than any other subject. Mantra given to unworthy person merit hell for the disciple and the teacher. Not to give it to a worthy person means additional rebirths.

Occultism is only disappointing for those who bring no gifts to the practice.

Virtue must proceed before powers can arise.

Then the practitioner has experiences – sometimes on bodily level – peculiar illnesses – called illness pecular to yogis. When yogi seeks escape from the world, the world will hold onto them through illness, all past effects come, and people that come to you give you their sins.

There are people who proclaim themselves for or against the Kali Goddess practice in India. They are both sides fools because they are not practitioners. You cannot argue with saints.

Mind can do anything. OK, except to heal yourself. Or grow an inch. Physical laws are very real. Easily proven.

If one has a chakra at a certain level they can perform certain miracle. They do this for themselves so that they can prove it to themselves; it not for others.

All action is mental. There are verbal and physical manifestations of mental actions. Spontaneous gestures are not spontaneous – for example, the foot cannot move without a mental impulse. In this way every action could be seen as mental if slowed down (enough).

The moment you provide the right condition, you will have the experience of God, the absolute.

Even the highest knowledge given to a corrupt person will become corrupt.

Silent witness that watches, does not take part. Purpose of yoga to realize this – to know. It cannot happen unless chitta vriitis are restrained.

Quoting a popular spiritual endeavor aphorism "May I, by virtue of this effort, attain to heaven" Desani's comment: "Pathetic … should be above attachment to a divine objective."

Yogi must surrender himself or herself to God. Must have observances. Rules. Purity, cleanliness, body, mind, breath, mind … all in a state of purity.

Witnessing, as opposed to indulging, is mindfulness: a detached viewpoint. It is impossible to be a detached observer without practice. When we develop mindfulness we observe thoughts. One has a memory of the (just passed) wholesome thought. It is memory in a very refined sense. One memorizes / is aware of a previous instant thought. This ability comes about through practice. The more selves one observes, the greater the mastery over the self. The greater the mastery over the self, the greater the mastery of one's environment. When an evil thought arises (prompted by lobha, dosa, or moha) we must not fight it. Rather we must know it. To know an evil thought is to destroy it. One looks upon himself. Minds himself. “Anger is present here.” Never mind what caused it. This is the only way to purify oneself.

Mindfulness: Another way: a person becomes an observer of his sensations. One king became an Arahat while recalling previous sensations of sexual experience. Another had the great experience of Nibbana while being eaten by a tiger. One watches his consciousness (who is watching?). One watches the object his mind contemplates.

Postpone charitable impulses so that you can develop competence. In what way can I develop competence? By not allowing my emotions to overwhelm me… to control me.

Why is concentration not achieved? Other objects compete for attention. Attachment, annoyances, irritation, self-dissatisfaction, anger, hatred, questioning "Is this the right practice?" All these are enemies of concentration. Also, over-scrupulousness can be a factor.

Concentration is naturally present in sexual embrace, in avaricious states, in hunter-hunted situations. Humans (naturally) seek a concentrated state. May be the reason behind our directing one's self to a negative state, to unhappiness. In such cases attention is attached to thought and a state of concentration arises.

A concentrated mind is a gifted mind.

One seeks the destruction of mundane consciousness so one can be seized by a superior consciousness and not be subject to the limitations through which ordinary consciousness arises.

Awareness is a form of concentration.

High attainments of concentration can occur when the object of concentration is metta.

Pratyakcetana … inward-looking consciousness. When consciousness leaves other objects and turns inward, that is surrender to god. A gift. Such people never get bored. Don’t need external stimulation. Trait is a must for a yogi. Otherwise no idea how dependent one is on other individuals. Also leads to samadhi.

Buddhist jhanas are equal to the highest Hindu samadhis.

To achieve jhana (samadhi), you need a special gifted state of mind. Humanity once had it … but we lost it.

Samadhi can last as little as a millionth of a second. A rare experience. The samadhi mind is not ordinary. One makes the effort because it leads ot happiness.

What happens in samadhi? All our wishes, aspirations, desires with which we are born and that compel us become dormant through this spiritual experience. Karmic seeds are not grown. It is the highest state of detachment.

Jhana: A very gifted state. A so-called super-normal attainment. People with these attainments never publicize them.

"True experience" can be had by a mind that has achieved samadhi. (By contrast) day-to-day memory and perception falsify.

Super mundane experiences: Like the taste of Coca-Cola, supermundane experiences cannot be described or defined by concepts.

Any human being can obtain the consciousness of a god, including conceiving the infinity of space or achieving a state between perception and non-perception, through jhana, an attainment of extreme concentration.

In the fourth jhana one reaches a catalytic state of the body: no sensation. The fourth jhana is also the miracle-making jhana: by willing something, it comes. Conclusion: basis of everything at all could be mental. Someone with the fourth jhana attainment should be able to produce enough substance to make a rose.

As you go higher and higher, each attainment becomes harder and harder. People shoot for the Nibbana #3, with #4 being too far away.

Practice #1 until #2 comes (jhanas) … then free of thought-conception and discursive thinking. All that is left is concentration – one with the object, you become the object plus rapture and joy. This is a state of high purity. The experience for two minutes will change anyone’s worldview. #3 jhana – loses rapture and replaces it with calmness, equanimity and happiness. With this attainment you will able to bring about a state that gives supreme happiness and equanimity and concentration / mindfulness and abiding happiness. #4 jhana : sukkha and concentration; #5 concentration and indifference – stillness. Miracles occur at jhanas 4 and 5 … human limitations are gone. One is at one with the highest gods.

Arupa jhana “Brahma consciousness – power over material. 1) Infinity of space; 2) infinity of consciousness – some with this attainment may know consciousness is everything; 3) Nothingness – Zen practice – impossible without other attainments. (Not absence of things.); 4) Neither perception nor non-perception. These were known before Gautama Buddha … he had teachers that taught him these things. Buddha did not regard these as the highest attainments. However, whosoever had this attainment would go to the Brahma world.

Insight comes to one like a flash of lightening. Can arise at any time at all when you get a balanced state of mind.

Jhana is not to be compared with Nibbana. There is no comparison.

If you can attain the 4th jhana you’ll never become a human being again.

It is a very great offense to make claims of jhana attainment.

Samadhi … process of letting go. Loosens on attractions and pursuits of worldly life. Instantaneously. Easy, if in dead earnest.

Third jhana will place you above human beings – cannot see them for the duration.

By practicing the 4th jhana he also can produce an object. A body might literally dissolve and materialize elsewhere. Doing this successfully can almost shatter a person.

In intense meditation the objects of concentration change and give rise to a secondary object. For example, contemplating a bloated corpse might give rise to a second image, that of a nourished man. One then contemplates the second object until the second object becomes a third object which is very, very refined and is so pleasant to contemplate that it will hold the mind. When the third image arises he is in the neighborhood of the first jhana. That third image is beautiful: guard it. By further contemplating it, one achieves the first jhana.

At any given moment the consciousness is not pure, it has colors making it finite, limited. If consciousness is separated from chetasika the consciousness becomes unlimited, a great attainment.

For anyone here in Austin the first attainment of Nibbana is possible. Also first and second jhanas.