Читать книгу: «Absolute freedom and happiness – our true essence», страница 3

The Five Aggregates are not the True «Self»

Let me briefly summarize the theses as to why the Five Aggregates are not the True «Self».

1. The impermanent things, the things that arise, change, and decay, cannot be Atman.

2. Things that bring suffering are also not our essence, since the True «Self» cannot bring suffering to itself. Furthermore, the True «Self», or Atman, is perfect, unconditioned freedom, joy, and happiness. Thus, if something is impermanent and therefore brings suffering, it cannot be Atman.

3. That which cannot be controlled cannot be us. For example, if the body were the True «Self», we would never get sick, age, or die. If the accumulated data were us, we would have complete control over it and never allow destructive thoughts or destructive emotions that bring suffering.

4. What is possible to divide or transfer to another is also not Atman. For example, we regularly cut our hair and nails, does it turn out that we are regularly cutting off a part of ourselves? Similarly, if experience were our essence, it would not be possible to pass it to another. However, we receive and share experiences, hence it is an object external to us that can be received or given away.

5. What we can observe is not the True «Self» because there is a distance between the observer (i.e., us) and the object, such as the body or the experience received, so the observed object is not the True «Self».

Karma⁷

Many different books have been written about karma. The word «karma» is used today by everyone without understanding its meaning. The most «ingenious» phrase I have heard about karma is «he was pursued by an evil fate because he violated karma all the time».

First of all, the word «karma» can be replaced with the phrase «formed experience». We perform three kinds of actions: by body – doing something, by speech – talking about something, and by thought – thinking about something. By performing these three types of actions, we first experience certain experiences and secondly receive information. Data about all our actions are accumulated (fixed, remain) in our Five Aggregates. More precisely – in Perceptions, Formed Experience and Distinction, of which the last one – Distinction – is the main accumulator. All the data that accumulates as a result of our actions, words, and thoughts is our karma.

Usually the word «karma» is understood to mean only unkind deeds and negative consequences. But in fact, it is not so – the data we accumulate has no substance: karma itself is neither bad nor good. It is just that the accumulated data will necessarily manifest itself in the form of phenomena in the external world and in the form of states of mind in our inner world. By distinguishing between external phenomena and our own inner state on the basis, again, of accumulated data (karma), we experience suffering and joy. Therefore, we can say that everything is karma, or rather, everything we experience – joys and sufferings – is an illusion of our accumulated karma.

Three Worlds of the Universe⁸
(Illustration № 2, «Three Worlds of the Universe»)

The entire universe, which arises because of work of our consciousness, consists of three worlds: the World of Passion, the World of Forms, and the Formless World. To transcend the worlds of these three categories is spiritual practice.

World of Passion (World of Phenomena)

The World of Passions is the material world in which we live now. It consists of gross substance. The World of Passion is dominated by the energy of heat. Of course, there is also sound energy and light energy, but the predominant energy is heat energy – this is easy to understand: all processes in the material world occur either by absorbing or releasing heat energy. Heat energy expresses our worldly desires: when we strongly want or do not want something, the corresponding type of heat energy is produced. Another name for the World of Passions is the World of Phenomena.

The World of Passions, or the World of Phenomena, consists of six worlds. From bottom to top, these are: World of Hell, World of Animals, World of Hungry Spirits, World of People, World of Asuras (demigods), and World of Devas (gods). In this life, we were born in the World of People – the fourth from the bottom.

World of Forms (Astral World)

The World of Forms is formed by subtle substance, i.e. images. In the World of Forms, there is no heat energy – there is only sound (vibration) and light. The energy of sound is predominant. The light of the World of Forms has a coloring, which expresses our Distinction and the desires or tendencies arising because of its work. Desires in the World of Forms are thoughts and images (thought-images or thought-forms), i.e. they do not have a rough form as in the World of Phenomena, where, in fact, any desire immediately turns into a concrete action for its satisfaction and is accompanied by the release of heat energy. Therefore, heat energy is absent in the World of Forms.

Another name for the World of Forms is the Astral World.

The World of Forms, or the Astral World, is divided into two large parts: the Lower Astral World and the Higher Astral World.

Lower World of Forms (Lower Astral World)

The Lower Astral World is the reverse side, or reflection, of the World of Passion. This is the world we see in dreams and the initial stages of meditation.

Unfortunately, nowadays it is often believed that «going into the Astral» is a spiritual practice. This is a very dangerous misconception. To put it briefly, the Lower Astral World are the images of our worldly desires. Therefore, simply «going into the Astral» outside the context of proper spiritual practice is nothing but terrifying visions of Hell, Animal World, and Hungry Spirit World in the Lower Astral World and, consequently, a blow to the psyche. Why does this happen? Two reasons can be distinguished here.

The main reason is to engage in any practice to satisfy one's worldly desires originating from egoism. For example, practicing magic, «fulfilment of all desires», «casting spells», «removing the evil eye», etc. Shakyamuni Buddha placed such things on a par with lowly passions, calling them «the establishment of worldly teachings and wrong way of life»⁹. In other words, engaging in such «practices» to satisfy worldly desires and authentic spiritual practice are opposite things. Why is this so? Because in the former case, man creates numerous low images of worldly desires in his Astral World. Since he aims to satisfy his egoism, he gets completely caught up in the images he has created, sinks into the Lower Astral World, and becomes firmly entangled in them. Whereas true spiritual practice is the destruction of worldly desires, liberation from the three worlds of the universe, and realization of the original state of Nirvana.

Practicing to satisfy egoism has another negative aspect besides being captured by images of worldly desires. It is the squandering of merit¹⁰. When we satisfy a desire and get what we want, the good karma, or merit, by which phenomena are formed and our positive discernment of those phenomena is realized, is spent, or emptied. If one does not accumulate merit, but constantly expends it to satisfy worldly desires, and even with the help of all sorts of «practices» that make past merit manifest in a forced manner, one is bound to come to a state in which there is nothing but suffering. The fact is that if we do not accumulate new merit, but constantly strive only for joy, then gradually all our past merit will be squandered and we will be left with only our past negative karma. This is very similar to the way we handle money. We earn money. This can be compared to accumulating good karma and merit. We spend the money we earn by buying ourselves what we want. This is spending merit – both literally and figuratively. When we borrow money, it can be compared to the accumulation of negative karma: debts will have to be repaid sooner or later anyway. What will happen if you constantly take loans (even at high-interest rates), do not pay them back, do not earn money, but spend it all the time? This will be the state of a person who does not understand the Law of Karma but is surprised and resentful of their «evil fate» because of constant failures and sufferings. However, people try to fulfil their plans through «secret practices» or live a happy life without considering the Law of Karma, without understanding the principles of accumulating and wasting merit, and without comprehending the principles of accumulating and laundering bad karma.

The second reason for uncontrolled immersion into the Lower Astral World is to engage only in technical practices to raise energy and obtain mystical experience. The fact is that in everyday life, in dreams, in meditation, and in the intermediate state after death (Bardo) we can only see the manifestation of the data (karma) that we have accumulated so far. That is, our daily life, our dreams, meditative experience, and the next life are determined not by external conditions, not by the totality of some random circumstances, but only by the data (karma) that we have accumulated exclusively by ourselves, performing actions with our body, speech, and thoughts – nothing else works or influences here.

If we were born in the World of Passion, it means that at the moment we start practicing we are dominated by low data that brings us suffering. In addition, if we simply increase our own energy, there will be a transition from the World of Phenomena to the Astral World. However, the worlds we will see in this case will correspond to the data of our worldly desires. For example, if hatred is strong in a person, i.e. the distinction between self and others based on egoism, then he will see the World of Hell: the visions will be like horror movies. If ignorance is strong, that is, blind desire for momentary pleasures, then the visions will be of the Animal World: perverted sex, panic fear, and talking coyotes, for example. The World of Hungry Spirits, formed by greed, is agony from the inability to satisfy one's desires, similar to the withdrawal syndrome in patients with alcoholism or drug addiction. If the data of the human world prevails, then in the clouded visions there will appear people for whom there is sympathy or antipathy, there will be emotions, attachment, and uncontrolled wandering through the World of People in the Lower Astral World.

However, all this is very far from true meditation. As in the first case, because of the immaturity of the soul, such a «practitioner» is bound to be seized by his Lower Astral experience. He will think that he has «come into contact with astral entities», «can speak with spirits», «has connected to the streams of cosmic energy», and «has achieved unity with the universe». This happens because the information coming from the Lower Astral World begins to mix with information relating to the past experience of this person. However, he has the illusion that all this information is received by him from the world in which he lives now – from the World of Phenomena. This means that the World of Phenomena and the Lower Astral have superimposed upon each other in the consciousness of this person, leaving him unable to discern which world is where. Besides, the arisen connection with the Lower Astral will be expressed in the fact that a person will begin to prefer the world of images to the real world. This is a dangerous condition bordering on schizophrenia.

Therefore, true spiritual practice based on the True Teachings (Dharma) always begins with a deep study of the Teachings given by the Great Teachers of the past, such as, for example, Shakyamuni Buddha, Guru Padmasambhava and Maharishi Patanjali¹¹. Through the study of Dharma, Right View and Right Thinking are formed, which is expressed in the sincere intention to attain Enlightenment and Emancipation. Then come the Practices of Goodness, Merit, Observance, Patience, and Perseverance. Through these practices, the data in our Five Aggregates, primarily Perceptions, Formed Experience and Discernment, is replaced. The data of the lower worlds – Hell, Animals, Hungry Spirits, People, and Asuras – is replaced by the data of the gods of the World of Passion and the Higher World of Forms, which I will discuss below. As a result, when we engage in technical and meditative practice, we do not get the experience of the lower worlds in the Lower Astral World. On the contrary, we experience the World of Devas and further enter the Higher World of Forms.

Higher World of Forms (Higher Astral World)

The Higher World of Forms is the world where the noble and exalted deities dwell, e.g. God Brahma, and God Vishnu. The Higher World of Forms is created by the Four Awakened States of Consciousness: Love (Maitri), Compassion (Karuna), Praise (Muditha), and Equanimity (Upeksha). Without mastery of these Four Awakened States of Consciousness, it is impossible to enter the Higher World of Forms in meditation.

In ordinary classification, the Higher World of Forms are divided into four levels, in detailed classification into seventeen levels. Genuine meditation is the passage of eight levels of concentration – dhyanas, or meditative concentrations. The first four dhyanas correspond to the Higher World of Forms, and the remaining four to the Higher Formless World.

Formless World (Causal World)

Formless World consists of light and consciousness – the energies of heat and sound are completely absent here. Light is information. Nowadays this fact is proved by physics and its section optics.

Another name for the Formless World is Causal World. This name gives us a clue as to the function of this world. Imagine a huge modern bank building. It is full of vaults, safe rooms, and cells. Some of these boxes belong to you – they hold your personal information. Some departments belong to large companies, and some belong to states or nations. All the past experience of all living beings enters this formless world and become information in its pure form, existing in the form of transparent light. Then this information is projected onto the Astral World and becomes images, and then these images become phenomena in the material world. This principle of data movement is true both for one particular soul and for whole countries and peoples. Why does data move? Because our consciousness, as well as the consciousness of other living beings, is active.

The Formless World or the Causal World consists of three large parts: the Lower Causal World, the Middle Causal World and the Higher Causal World.