Download PDF - Stillness Speaks

Apart from the nuts and bolts working of the mechanism one fact stands out:in addition to the material level at least two other hidden layers of our beingintimately factor into our response to life: the subtle and the causal.If, as the science of Self-Knowledge 66 contends, there is a forth level, 67the Self, hidden within the subtle and behind the causal, how does it fit intothe stimulus response chain? Answer: it doesn't, at least not directly. Why?Because the stimulus-response mechanism fixes our attention firmly inmaterial reality. Extroversion is the most salient feature of waking stateconsciousness and the primary reason the Self, the only permanentsource of fulfillment, is effectively walled off from experience. This is notto say that the Self, the essence of our being, is uninvolved. Just as the sunmakes all earthly activity possible but does not directly participate in anyactivity, the Self simply provides the consciousness-energy that makes thebody-mind-sense complex dynamic. How it functions is up to the embodiedbeing and its vasanas.The senses, turned toward the elemental world, are not the only meansof knowledge and experience. Through coordinating sense impressions andexecuting commands issuing from deeper layers of the pysche, the Mind, firstlimb of the Subtle Body, has evolved a world of its own. In its passive aspectMind, often called the "heart," 68 tunes into or reads feelings and emotions(Arrow between "M" and "E" in upper left.) while simultaneously projectinga wide array of positive and negative feelings: anger, jealousy,possessiveness, kindness, love, sympathy, affection, etc. And like the senses,nervously fixated on the material world, the mind is obsessively riveted onthe emotional world, constantly on guard against a negative impulse from ahostile mind, alert to tender sympathies from kindred hearts. So concernedwith safely navigating the peaks and troughs of its windy emotional sea, itfails to appreciate the extraordinary fact that it’s sailing on an ocean of pureLove. 69 Intellect, the second limb of the Subtle Body, thinks and chooses. Theteachings of Vedanta have evolved as a result of the spiritual needs ofintellectually developed beings. Because it is a little subtler than the mind, abit closer to the Self, the source of its intelligence, it can become a powerfulaid in the search for fulfillment just as the mind, purified of negativities, maybecome a channel for pure love and a powerful motivator for growth.66 Brahma Vidya, the Science of or Way to the Infinite, commonly called Vedanta.67 There is actually no forth level. The Self alone exists. Yet it seems a “forth” with reference to It’s threebodies.68 This is not the same as the hridaya, the spiritual “Heart” or Self.69 The Self.53