Ajna
The
ajna center, you remember, looks like a winged seed, and it contains no animal.
That means there is no psychical factor, nothing against us whose power we might
feel. The original symbol, the linga, is here repeated in a new form, the
white state. Instead of the dark germinating condition, it is now in the
full blazing white light, fully conscious. In other words, the God that
has been dormant in muladhara is here fully awake, the only reality; and
therefore this center has been called the condition in which one unites with
Siva. One could say it was the center of the
unio
mystica with the power of God, meaning that absolute reality where one is
nothing but psychic reality, yet confronted with the psychic reality that one is
not. And that is God. God is the eternal psychical object. God is
simply a word for the non-ego. In
visuddha psychical
reality was still opposed to physical reality. Therefore one still used
the support of the white elephant to sustain the reality of the
psyche.
Psychical facts still took place within us, although they had a life of their
own.
But
in the ajna center the
psyche gets wings – here you know you are nothing but
psyche. And yet
there is another psyche, a counterpart to your psychical reality, the non-ego
reality, the thing that is not even to be called self, and you know that you are
going to disappear into it. The
ego
disappears completely; the psychical is no longer a content in us, but we become
contents of it. You see that this condition in which the white elephant
has disappeared into the self is almost unimaginable. He is no longer
perceptible even in his strength because he is no longer against you. You
are absolutely identical with him. You are not even dreaming of doing
anything other than what the force is demanding, and the force is not demanding
it since you are already doing it – since you are the force. And the force
returns to the origin of God.
Suppose
somebody reached the ajna center, the state of complete
consciousness,
not only self-consciousness. That would be an exceedingly
extended
consciousness which includes everything – energy itself – a consciousness
which knows not only “That is Thou” but more than that – every tree, every
stone, every breath of air, every rat’s tail – all that is yourself; there is
nothing that is not yourself. In such an extended
consciousness all the cakras would be simultaneously experienced, because it is
the highest state of
consciousness,
and it would not be the highest if it did not include all the former
experiences.
And
so through our effort, we have come to the vision of God, Cakra 6, ajna,
“authority or power.” The soul beholds its object.
What has happened? We have a two-petaled lotus, the
soul and its god, Jiva and Ishvara. The goddess Hakini, on
the soul of her own love, is the dominant figure here. This
is Maya with six heads. The sixth head is mind.
In her six hands are the tick of time, “do not be afraid,” mediataion,
the scriptures, “boon-bestowing,” and the severed head of the creator of the
world. The energy of
Cakra 3 was brought to
Cakra 5.
Through its exercise we’ve broken through, and the energy of love, of
Cakra 2, is now experienced in its sublime form of love for God.
When Dante beheld Beatrice, it was in the way not of
Cakra 2 but of Cakra
6. He saw her not as an object of lust but as a manifestation
of the beauty of God’s grace and love for the world. Through
contemplating her in that way he was brought to the throne of final realization.
That’s what we have taking place here.
High on a wall at
6 - 7
So we come to the final problem. What is this thing between Cakra 6 and Cakra 7? At 6, from Brahma down to the blade of grass, all is pairs of opposites. This is called maya, which is, as it were, the womb. It’s from a root, ma, which means “to measure forth.” So she is the one that creates both the lingam and the yoni. Above that, there is neither you nor God. There is nothing of the kind. The whole universe is the goddess. We are here, hell is down there, heaven is up there. How do you go to hell? You make you ego system harder and harder and harder and are stuck with it. Hell is the place of people stuck on themselves. How do you get to heaven? Open and open and open until finally all is transpersonal.
Shiva is the god, creating the world.
Shave means “corpse.” The corpses in
One, Two, Three, Four, Five, Six, Seven. If we stay up there the body drops off, and we are released from life. The ideal, from the point of view of someone interested in life, is to come back to the heart where the two are together, to Cakra 4, where we realize that the energy of Cakra 3 has functioned at 5, the energy of 2 at 6, and the energy of 1 at 7. Thus we know how to translate our earthly experience into the spiritual exercise. Cakra 3 – what we are to conquer is ourselves and our attachment and go off to war. Cakra 2 – through our human love we are to experience the radiance of eternity.
The Buddha functions from the heart center. The energy comes right from the heart center. When the Buddha says “No” to the tempter, his hand is in the earth-touching posture. But when he has experienced what is to be experienced, his hand turns around and bestows boons. And so the Buddha returns to bestow boons, returns from his austerities to teach. The lord of the universe himself bows to and embraces himself as the universe, the goddess. So that’s the lesson of the Kundalini. TMTT 169