Meditation can be sustained only if one lives a wholesome life, free from emotional entanglements and adharmic deeds. Awaken the soul force, feel at home in the pure state of Being. Desire is energy expressing itself. Uplift consciousness, transmute energy into refined desire. Light and actinic pure life energy forms in meditation have their source in God. Identify with the light, experience Peace. Meditate on awareness moving vibrantly and buoyantly into the inner depths to where awareness is simply aware of itself, there peace and bliss remains, undisturbed for centuries.

"Guru Chronicles," Master Course Trilogy, "Merging with Siva" Lessons 80-81.

Unedited Transcript:

Good morning everyone.

We are continuing with "Merging with Siva" lessons going through them in chronological order meaning the order in which Gurudeva gave the talks. And today we're continuing with Chapter 12 entitled "Beginning to Meditate" which is a compilation of material from 1965 and 1970.

So, we have a little background from "Guru Chronicles."

"Gurudeva named 1965 "The Year of the Academy." His mission was in the ascendency, and he longed to develop his property in Nevada as a remote retreat for himself and his monks. He began to make the four-hour drive from the San Francisco temple to the Nevada ashram more often, sometimes weekly. Seeing the need, members leased for him a black Cadillac. Nevada had no speed limits in those days, and he drove those remote roads himself, seldom exceeding 80 miles per hour. It was, for him, a meditation.

"The Nevada Mountain Desert Monastery was to become Master's Gurudeva's spiritual home and his publications center. It was just a quarter mile from the center of a cowboy town of 600 red-neck mountain boys and their families. The wooden boardwalks from 100 years earlier were still used, and the Bucket of Blood saloon opened early in the day. The heyday was long gone and the Opera House was a shell of its former self; but the town survived, barely, on a trickle of tourists who made the 24-mile drive uphill from Reno. They would gamble a bit, buy some trinkets, drink a beer and have their pictures taken in front of a wooden Indian."

Okay, so Lesson 80:

"Odic and Actinic Forces

"Meditation can be sustained only if one lives a wholesome life, free from emotional entanglements and adharmic deeds. Intensive, consistent meditation dispels the antagonistic, selfish, instinctive forces of the mind and converts those channels of energy into uplifted creative action. The same force works to make either the saint or the sinner. The same force animates both love and hate. It is for the devotee to control and direct that one force so that it works through the highest channels of creative expression. When this soul force is awakened, the refined qualities of love, forgiveness, loyalty and generosity begin to unfold. In this ascended state of concentrated consciousness, the devotee will be able to look down on all the tense conditions and involvements within his own mind from a view far 'above' them. As the activity of his thoughts subsides, he begins to feel at home in that pure state of Being, released from his identification with and bondage to lower states of mind. A profound feeling of complete freedom persists."

That's an interesting point there. "He begins to feel at home in that pure state of Being." In other words, many individuals feel uncomfortable if they're not thinking about something. They're attached to the thinking process. They feel at home because they're thinking. But this is feeling at home in a state of Being that doesn't have any thinking going on. So it takes some adjustment.

So my commentary, it's a long commentary.

Energy, life and desire are a one thing. Energy, life, desire. In the text we just read Gurudeva is using the term energy and talking about redirecting it. In other writings, Gurudeva presents the same idea using the term desire and redirecting it. With that in mind I'll read my standard comments on the idea of giving up desire.

Some say, "Give up desire!" You've heard that, Hindu teaching, Give up desire. Desire is what is causing the whole problem. It drives us to get what we want, and when the happiness of that getting eventually wears off we start all over again with a new desire. So, if you can get rid of desire, you solve the whole problem. Right?

Gurudeva looked at it differently. He said, "Desire is life, and the reason we desire things is because we are alive. Desire is energy expressing itself." Thus the only way you could get rid of desire would be to get rid of life. Even if the physical body has passed on, even if we don't have a physical body, we are still "alive," still active, creative and motivated by what? Desire. So, trying to get rid of desire is not really a solution to the cycle of desire and fulfillment. The only way you could get rid of desire would be to get rid of life.

Instead, Gurudeva suggested uplifting our consciousness and changing what we desire. So that's the goal. We're not trying to get rid of desire, trying to desire something that's more refined, that's not as selfish. This is how we solve the problem, by channeling or transmuting our energy, desiring things that are more refined. So, next time you hear give up desire, remember that. We want to transmute it or desire something that's more refined, more beneficial to everyone.

Back to the text:

"Meditation is similar to watching the play of light in pictures on television. Identify with the pictures, and emotion is experienced. Identify with the light, and peace is experienced. Both light and energy forms have their source in God. Begin this evening, while watching the news on TV, by keeping awareness more within the light than the pictures. By all means, begin this ancient, mystical art, but as you progress, don't be surprised when regrets, doubts, confusions and fears you hardly knew you remembered loom up one by one to be faced and resolved. Perform the vasana daha tantra: simply write down all the regrets, doubts, confusions and fears in as much detail as possible, then burn the paper in a fireplace or garbage can. Claim the release from the past impression that this tantra imparts.

"There are two forces that we be come conscious of when we begin to meditate: the odic force and the actinic force. Actinic force is pure life energy emanating from the central source of life itself. Odic force is the magnetism that emanates out from our physical body, attracts and merges with the magnetism of other people. The odic force is what cities are made of, homes are made of. The actinic force, flowing through the physical body, out through the cells and through the skin, eventually becomes odic force.

"As soon as we begin to meditate, we become conscious of these two forces and must be aware of how to deal with them. The odic forces are warm, sticky. The actinic forces are inspirational, clean, pure, true. We seek in meditation the actinic force."

Then we have my commentary:

The Sanskrit terms for actinic and odic energy are respectively suddha maya and ashuddha maya. There is also the combination of the two which is called actinodic energy and in Sanskrit is suddhssuddha maya. So those are the three energies, English and Sanskrit.

Lesson 81:

"Transmuting the energies

"When we begin to meditate, we have to transmute the energies of the physical body. By sitting up straight, with the spine erect, the energies of the physical body are transmuted. The spine erect, the head balanced at the top of the spine, brings one into a positive mood. In a position such as this we cannot become worried, fretful or depressed or sleepy during our meditation.

"Slump the shoulders forward and short circuit the actinic forces that flow through the spine and out through the nerve system. In a position such as this it is easy to become depressed, to have mental arguments with oneself or another, or to experience unhappiness. With the spine erect and head balanced at the top of the spine, we are positive, dynamic. Thoughts race through the mind substance, and we are aware of many, many thoughts. Therefore, the next step is to transmute the energies from the intellectual area of the mind so that we move our awareness into an area of the mind which does not think but conceives, looks at the thinking area.

"The force of the intellectual area of the mind is controlled and transmuted through the power of a regulated breath. A beginning pra?ayama is a method of breathing nine counts as we inhale, holding one; nine counts as we exhale, holding one count. Be very sure to maintain the same number of counts out as in, or that the breath is regulated to the same distance in as the same distance out. This will quickly allow you to become aware of an area of the mind that does not think but is intensely alive, peaceful, blissful, conceives the totality of a concept rather than thinking out the various parts. This perceptive area of the mind is where the actinic forces are most vibrant. Sushumna, the power of the spine, is felt dynamically, and we are then ready to begin meditation.

"Meditate on awareness as an individual entity flowing through all areas of the mind, as the free citizen of the world travels through each country, each city, not attaching himself anywhere.

"In meditation, awareness must be loosened and made free to move vibrantly and buoyantly into the inner depths where peace and bliss remain undisturbed for centuries, or out into the odic force fields of the material world where man is in conflict with his brother, or into the internal depths of the subconscious mind. Meditate, therefore, on awareness traveling freely through all areas of the mind. The dynamic willpower of the meditator in his ability to control his awareness as it flows into its inner depths eventually brings him to a state of bliss where awareness is simply aware of itself. This would be the next area to move into in a meditation. Simply sit, being totally aware that one is aware. New energies will flood the body, flowing out through the nerve system, out into the exterior world. The nature then becomes refined in meditating in this way."

So we have some Shum words that relate:

dibanif: 1) Awareness, fluid and free from fear, flowing; 2) The area of the mind of fluid awareness that one has after namutana. (We'll explain namutana next.) When dibanif is cultivated, awareness can move quickly in any direction, thus mental arguments with others or with oneself do not occur. this is a useful portrait to master. (Definitely.)

Then we get:

The first experience of the fifth-dimensional light of yulaf; this enters one into a new area of the mind by forming a new habit pattern. Understanding of niimf; the portrait names only the initial experience and not any succeeding ones.

In other words first we need, call it a medium intensity of experience of the inner light and then dibanif can be easily cultivated.

Have a wonderful day.