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yajvan
16 May 2008, 09:38 AM
Hari Om
~~~~~


Namaste

To suggest 'finding turya' infers it has been lost. This is not the case. Perhaps better word is to become aware of, or discover turya¹.
We have talked much about turya on HDF. I have listed some of the HDF posts below in the footnotes.

This turya is most delicate…. We drive past it daily and miss it. Where do we 'drive' past this? During the gaps, or sandhi some write saṃdhi संधि, the junction point or transition from one to the other.

For this post, it is the transition from waking consciousness to dream, or from dream to sleep, and or from sleep to waking. This gap or sandhi is a place where one travels each day but goes right by it, unnoticed. The same way you may drive in your town over-and-over again then one day you say, ' I never noticed that store there'. A familiar route of travel , yet missing something that is there again and again.
One can experience this gap, this saṃdhi via meditation techniques, albeit there are other methods also. I can mention them if there is interest yet for this post I thought of meditation as the area of consideration.

Though meditation, one settles down the mind… The notion is to experience sūkṣma gati. What is that ? Refined, subtle, awareness.
It is the subtle march or progression of awareness to finer and finer levels of being, or consciousness. As this march continues the body-system settles down, there is less and less heavy breathing. As the breath settles, so does the mind, as mind is yoked to the breath.

This settling of breath brings calmness not only to the body but to the mind. As if a pot of boiling water has its fire removed from it ,it begins to settle down, the bubbles are less and less, and the water in the pot calms down, like that, the mind calms as prāṇa becomes more refined.

What are we doing? We are setting up the conditions for this sandhi to be experienced. Note, not created, as it exists there. All we need to do it create this restfully alert condition for sandhi to be experienced.
Note the notion of restful alertness. The body is not asleep, but in a rested condition, and the mind is more refined, calm yet alert, not like sleep. A calm and peaceful condition.

I have been looking for another term for this state of awareness. I looked to Svami Laksmanjoo for assistance. He calls this unfoldment of sūkṣma gati, anusandhāna, ever-refreshed awareness.

If we look at the word anu+sandha+āna we have anu or orderly , methodically , one after another , repeatedly; sandhi we discussed; and āna is exhaling the breath through the nose or inhalation ~ breath inspired , breathing. This produces continually refreshed awareness.
Well how does one pursue this continually-refreshed awareness? Vijῆāna Bhairava tantra gives us the methods. This HDF set of posts outlines a few dharana ( a practice, contemplation, meditations) for one to consider: http://www.hindudharmaforums.com/showthread.php?t=2323 (http://www.hindudharmaforums.com/showthread.php?t=2323)

Again utilizing the breath is simple and one gains results after a very short period. This is the method of prāṇāyām and is outlined in kārikā (sloka or sutra) 24 of Vijῆāna Bhairava tantra.

It is through this prāṇāyām method the breath becomes calm, some call this centering the breath and the mind. This centering, madya or standing between two, a neutral position, is called madhyamaṃ prāṇam - this is how Svami Laksmanjoo calls it. So as on practices, madhyamaṃ prāṇam becomes established and the ability to experience this sandhi unfolds. It is here where turya resides.


If you maintain your awareness at that point which is found between waking and sleeping, you will be focused on that supreme felicity which is the supreme bliss of God Consciousness ...Ślokāṣṭaka, translation by svami Laksmanjoo

pranams

Words Used and Reference HDF Posts

turya तुर्य some write turiya तुरीय - the 4th.
sūkṣma gati : sūkṣma सूक्ष्म acute , subtle , keen + gati गति manner or power of going, procession , march , passage , procedure , progress , movement
Madhya मध्य - standing between two , impartial , neutral; being of a middle kind or size or quality
anu+sandha+āna : anu अनु - each by each , orderly , methodically , one after another , repeatedly; saṃdhi संधि - is the junction point, transition from one to the other; āna आन - exhaling the breath through the nose.
HDF posts on turya subject matter
The import of turya - http://www.hindudharmaforums.com/showthread.php?t=1822 (http://www.hindudharmaforums.com/showthread.php?t=1822)
The summary of the import of turya - http://www.hindudharmaforums.com/showthread.php?t=2050 (http://www.hindudharmaforums.com/showthread.php?t=2050)
Consciousness - http://www.hindudharmaforums.com/showthread.php?t=1773 (http://www.hindudharmaforums.com/showthread.php?t=1773)

yajvan
17 May 2008, 11:57 AM
Hari Om
~~~~~



This turya is most delicate…. We drive past it daily and miss it. Where do we 'drive' past this? During the gaps, or sandhi some write saṃdhi संधि, the junction point or transition from one to the other.

The same way you may drive in your town over-and-over again then one day you say, ' I never noticed that store there'. A familiar route of travel , yet missing something that is there again and again.

Though meditation, one settles down the mind… The notion is to experience sūkṣma gati.

Namaste

If we take a look at this sūkṣma gati , how is this much different then the something you experience today? Lets take a look. If we consider the body & mind at a macro level we can make some general observations. Lets look at the body & mind in 3 conditions i.e. waking, (deep) sleep, and dreaming, we then can compare it to this sūkṣma gati and see if there is a difference.

Waking, also called jāgrat, the mind is alert, and the body is active.
Sleep also called suṣupti , the mind is dormant of activity, the body is still or inactive; deep rest is occuring in body & mind.
Dream also called svapna, the mind is extremely active , yet relatively speaking the body remains still , other then the flinches or muscle movements that may occur. The Mind is very smart as it lets out a particular chemical to inhibit body movement, insuring the body does not physically act-out the dreams that may be occurring. ( When this chemical is unsuccessful, one may experience sleep walking ).So these 3 conditions have distinct characteristics. Now enter sūkṣma gati as the condition for one to experience this gap , sandhi, where turiya resides. As one experiences this, the mind now settles down, becomes calm, yet alert; The body is also calm, rested, balanced.
This condition is unlike the other 3 states mentioned above. That is why many have called the condition restful alertness. Perfectly awake, yet the attention is directed inward , unlike the waking state, where the awareness it directed outward; And the body is at rest, yet not feeble, or without tone; it is balanced.

It is via this condition that the mind & body then are prepared to experience the gap , sandhi, and turiya. Yet what is quite interesting (to me) is how this restful alertness is defined or offered… in the last post. The quote was
If you maintain your awareness at that point which is found between waking and sleeping, you will be focused on that supreme felicity which is the supreme bliss of God Consciousness.

Note the wise use common terms of wake and sleep to help us understand this body & mind condition. That is, sandhi does exist between the actual process of wake and sleep when we dose off to sleep, we pass by this sandhi junction. Yet it also exists if we choose to create the similar conditions to experience the 'gap' via meditative techniques.

The meditative techniques allow us to experience finer levels of consciousness of perfect rest ( deep sleep) and perfect alertness (waking state). This means, creating the conditions so we can experince it , not pass it up and go into sleep state. I think this is very profound that the wise understand this.

Over time, one can also experience this gap as when falling asleep too. Meditation trains the mind on how to stay passively-alert, and as one falls asleep can still maintain this awareness BEFORE sleep arrives , thus experiencing the junction point or sandhi, and hence turiya. My teacher used to call this culturing the nervous system.

Sometimes people have this experience w/o any technique or preparation, and do not know what it is. They find it enjoyable, but are not certain just what occurred, or how to make it happen again. Some then may classify it as a mystical or spiritual experince, which is fine, but its quite natural for us as beings to experience this.

I have one friend that is a musician as he tells me he end-ups in this place on occasion when he plays his guitar - there is no time, there is balance, there is clarity. I find this a most wonderful experience for him to have. In fact the method that he uses is called out in the Vijῆāna Bhairava¹ tantra, kārikā 73:
gītādi-viṣayāsvādasama-asukhyaikatatmanaḥ |
yoginas tanmayatvena manorūdhes-tad-ātmatā ||

Swami Laksmanjoo's translation is thus:
When the mind of a yogi is one with the unparalleled joy of music and other (aesthetic delights),
then he is identified with it due to the expansion of his mind which has merged with it.

He suggests that the yogi whose mind is focused on the joy of the music while experiencing the melodious tunes, becomes united with that unparallelled bliss (asama saukhya).

The mind is absorbed in the one collective sound, not the different notes. This is key , to experience it in whole. The notion is to collectively put ones awareness of the beauty of the sound. I have had some nice experiences with with this approach.

IMHO this is why music is so popular. It brings joy. Any thing that takes you in the direction of sandhi will bring joy. Now for those that listen to music, the technique is given above to sit and listen to your favorite music, and allow sūkṣma gati to begin.


pranams


Words used and References
Jāgrat जाग्रत् - waking
Svapna स्वप्न - dreaming , a dream ; a vision-dream
Suṣupti सुषुप्ति deep sleep ; some call complete unconsciousness, yet I am not fond of this as a definition.
Vijῆāna Bhairava - The Practice of Centering Awareness - teachings of Svami Laksmanjoo given to his sisya Prabha Devi in 1991; Then turned into publication in 2002 [ISBN 81-86569-35-9]; I am a better person for finding this book
Other HDF Posts in this: http://www.hindudharmaforums.com/showthread.php?t=2323 (http://www.hindudharmaforums.com/showthread.php?t=2323)
Are We Awake? http://www.hindudharmaforums.com/showthread.php?t=2263 (http://www.hindudharmaforums.com/showthread.php?t=2263)

yajvan
21 May 2008, 11:48 AM
Hari Om
~~~~~

Over time, one can also experience this gap as when falling asleep too. Meditation trains the mind on how to stay passively-alert, and as one falls asleep can still maintain this awareness BEFORE sleep arrives , thus experiencing the junction point or sandhi, and hence turiya. My teacher used to call this culturing the nervous system.

Namaste,

By this Madhya daśā , the center state or center period we have discussed above, one is postioned for samādhi¹. It is interesting ( to me) that for the (new) aspirant experiencing nimīlini samādhi (or with eyes closed) this person experinces only the entrance and exit of this state. This is called out in the Spanda-kārikās. Its been reviewed in this HDF Post - http://www.hindudharmaforums.com/showpost.php?p=19972&postcount=3 (http://www.hindudharmaforums.com/showpost.php?p=19972&postcount=3)

Yet for the person that is adept at this, at grooming this turiya, it becomes part of ones daily life. Some like to call it un-nimīlini samādhi. That is, it (samādhi) remains even while the eyes are open. One has thus established
this level of deep restful alertness during ones activity. In fact , it does not leave during wake , dream or sleep. One has established or cultured the nervous system to support and experience this level of Being at all times.

One can say śaṇkara (some write śaṃkara) has been established in this native… that is, śaṃ + kara. This śam is auspiciousness or grace + kara the act of doing , making. This person realizes this grace or anugraha or confering kindness , showing favour , conferring benefits, from level of Being.
It said in the Spanda-kārikās , śaṃ kariti iti śaṃkaraḥ , śaṇkara is one who does śaṃ. A most beautiful condition for the aspirant to unfold.

Now Svami Laksmanjoo in his commentary on the Siva sutras says this, If one realizes that state of supreme God Consciousness for only the fraction of the time it takes to blink one's eyes [ a nimesha ] then from that very moment, he is said to be completely liberated and will not come again to this world. He is quoting from the Netra Tantra 8.8

pranams


1. Words Used
nimīlini निमीलन - shutting the eyes
unnimīlini उन्मीलन the act of opening the eyes , raising the eyelids
samādhi समाधि union, whole, completion; absorbtion

yajvan
24 May 2008, 02:04 PM
Hari Om
~~~~~

Namaste

I was thinking of the posts offered above, then happened to read a verse from the Bhagavad-gīitā ( Chapt 2 verse 57). The sloka suggest that when this balace is estabished this madhya daśā the aspirant experiencing nimīlini samādhi (with eyes closed) or un-nimīlini samādhi (eyes opened) blance is achieved.


This suggests that sthitiprajñā is firm, or has been established. Some call this rūḍha रूढ - mounted , risen , ascended, sprung up , grown , increased , developed.

That is, sthiti स्थिति standing upright or firmly , not falling + prajñā or intuitive wisdom, knowledge is standing firm and has been mounted, rūḍha, or established. The person has become a yogin, or yoked to the SELF, to ātman¹.


So ones knowledge is firmly established, yoked to the SELF. The blossoming of clarity of mind, and balance (in pleasure or pain) is a way of life. Why so? Because the sadhu's relationship with the world is anchored in the SELF, that which knows no bounds and is stainless.

The sadhu now has SELF-referral. Restful alertness is way of living at all times, not just when the eyes are shut.



pranams


words used

ātman आत्मन् ātma to breathe; another root verb is āp आप् to pervade, enter; become filled to arrive at one's aim or end
sthiti स्थिति standing upright or firmly , not falling ; standing, staying , remaining , abiding , stay , residence
prajñā - wisdom, intiutive knowledge