Читать книгу Mysticism from A to Z. A clear introduction to the deepest and most complex spiritual issues - Нго-Ма - Страница 4

After writing the first chapter of this series, I was very pleasantly surprised by the great attention and received quite a lot of mail with questions about this. Therefore, literally in hot pursuit, I decided to continue and I understood that I had touched on a very important topic – the topic of thinking and the topic of the gradation of this thinking.

People ask me about a working and parasitic mind or a thinking mind, but this is the terminology of Ramesh Balsekar – «working mind» and «thinking mind.» I think that in our system it will be precisely the «working mind» and «imagination», respectively, we conditionally divided the mind into 4 parts. I believe that this is the best option for you to be aware of what entering into the Moment of Now means and what is ultimately being cut off there. It is that thinking that is able to unfold the space-time continuum and switch attention from the current immediate experience into a fantasy about this experience, and the distinction of these things is very, very important.

What questions will we discuss next? I would like to raise an issue that is very closely related to the types of thinking – this is the issue of the types of experience. Today I will give you such a concept as «four types of experience», and you will add a little bit to the picture. What do the «four experiences» mean? Yesterday we dwelt in some detail on the mediated experience that we receive through our mental plane – that is, it is the ability to receive experience through the imagination. We are told some kind of plot, we receive information, we build all this into a kind of a picture in our imagination, we put an image of ourselves there and just through this we get an indirect experience.

This experience is very important, and we can call it the experience of the mind, but more important is the direct experience. This is an experience gained in the Moment of Now through our senses. It is then remembered, it is then recorded, but it should never be confused with the experience gained indirectly. You must clearly distinguish – this experience I got directly, for example I learned to ride a bike, and this one – I read about how to ride a bike. You can read a book about a world swimming champion, but that does not mean that you have learned to swim, that is, learning to swim directly, getting direct experience and reading about it, hearing about it – these are different things. In your system of thinking, there should be different folders in your memory, which do not allow you to lie that this is – I received directly, and this I received indirectly. The differentiation and distinction between direct and indirect experience is a very important point.

The fact is that when we touch mysticism, spirituality (and now we have a very large access to literature), we, of course, have a great temptation to simulate all this and wake up just in our imagination. However, any difficult situation pisses us off and sends us straight to who we really are and what we think of ourselves. Therefore, it is very important not to confuse mediated experience with direct one. It is such a childhood illness to present fantasies as reality and do not have the ability or strength to admit that this is only my mediated experience, that I don’t have it in my direct experience.

These are the two types of experience. The next type of experience that I am going to give you is an experience of altered states of consciousness. In our Formation, we do not consider this type of experience at all, because we have a very clear attitude to spiritual experiences. Experiments obtained with the help of all kinds of means, no matter what – permitted or prohibited, changing our everyday state of consciousness – are not spiritual. They are psychedelic experiences involving changes in brain chemistry. That is, if you accept something or influence in some way the body – these are altered states of consciousness, and they are not a spiritual experience. I want you to understand this clearly.

The fourth type of experience is the highest experience available to us – spiritual experience, and I want you to hear now that this experience has nothing to do with imagination, with mediated experience – it has nothing to do with it. It grows out of your direct experience. I also call it the «ultimate expression» of direct experience. That way, first in practice, we move from imagination, where we are stuck and where our attention is stuck for many days – to direct experience, and from direct experience, we, without applying any means, move to spiritual experience. These are very specific experiences, these are very specific practices, and these are very clear states that are testable and repeatable because they are not fantasy. Therefore, there are teachings about spirituality, about mysticism. I want you to understand that these are very precise teachings. I generally call it science, because it meets the criteria that are presented to science, it is repeatable and it is testable. Therefore, spiritual experience is a very clear experience.

The first such spiritual experience, oddly enough, you will not believe, is Love. That is, Love is not a feeling, it is not a sensation; Love is a spiritual experience. In fact, a loving person is already a spiritual person. The entrance to spirituality is the entrance through Love, if we are talking about the first and most accessible experience. Yes, you should be a rather subtle person with an open mind. What is the soul in this sense? The soul is essentially a counterparty to spiritual experience; the soul is the recipient of spiritual experience.

If the mediated experience is received not by the body, not by the organism, not by the senses, then this mediated experience through words is received by the mind, and this is essentially a mental experience, modeled by the mentality, and the recipient of it is the mentality. Do not be afraid to say that this experience is received by the mind, that it is not received by your body. The experience received by the body is a direct experience, and the experience gained by the mentality is a mediated experience. The experience of which the soul is the counterpart is a spiritual experience. And the first such experience is Love. Love is not a feeling, Love is not a sense, Love is a deep spiritual experience, it is a guide to the world of spiritual experiences. So, mysticism is a science that deals with spiritual mystical experiences.

A very important point, which we have already talked about, is the practice of withdrawing attention into direct experience. If you do not learn this and do not begin to distinguish, then all your spirituality may take place in imagination, that is, in modeling, in fantasies, in thinking out. And this is not spirituality, this is pseudo-spirituality, this is mental spirituality, mental fantasies. Therefore, the road to spirituality goes through being in the Moment of Now, in direct experience. You must first stand here. This is where the spiritual journey begins, this is where our spirituality begins and it grows out of direct experience. It has nothing to do with psychedelic experiences caused by all kinds of drugs or exercises that involve changes in brain chemistry. It has nothing to do with imagination, our fantasies. If you hear me, then I will be very, very happy.

I have passed on to you the teaching of the «four types of experience.» Although it seems very simple, your discernment will have to work and assimilate this information.