Dear David,
I’ve been studying your teachings on the voice
of Ramana Maharshi because he was my ‘last guru.’
Here is a stumbling block: translations, terms, Hindu frames of
reference vs Western concepts. These are
so confusing & often misleading that even the most sincere of persons,
seeking Union with God, would get lost, confused along the way
& fail to meet their goal. Even I
couldn’t follow it completely - & they were beginners, what chance would
they have?
Terms: the
mind. To lose the mind. No, you cannot lose your mind, you would be
in a psyche ward locked up.
It needs to be explained – the difference between the
conscious & unconscious mind.
Does Ramana mean let the conscious mind go – open up the
unconscious? That’s what happens in
hypnosis – you put the conscious to sleep, you access the unconscious &
there you work with the mind like a surgeon, fixing the negatives, affirming
the positives.
The conscious mind is but a small snippet of our entire
mind – it is not dangerous ‘to lose,’ but even this has to be temporary because
one needs the conscious mind to function in mundane things such as (1) going to
work (2) keeping house & body clean (3) relating to others (4) paying bills
(5) driving the car (6) all the minutiae of the world. Do you agree?
Now when a person lulls to sleep their conscious mind in
prayer or meditation, this is not 24 hours – it’s for a while. {Indeed there are times in the lives of
saints – of all denominations – who went to the wilderness or stayed in their
room 2-3 years while they delved the interior state, but then they came out of
it, having achieved what had to be done, plummeting the depths of their soul,
they had their experiences & were able to return to ‘normalcy.’}
During these initial or formative years indeed the
conscious is ‘destroyed’ to some degree, not for all time.
However, to just say THE MIND MUST BE DESTROYED is one of
the most misleading terms I’ve ever heard.
If your entire mind is destroyed what is in it? Every memory from the day you were born –
your schooling, the books you read, your family,
all you ever experienced. It’s all in the UNCONSCIOUS & if this is
gone you would have AMNESIA, YOU WOULD NOT KNOW WHO YOU ARE, YOUR NAME OR
ANYTHING, WHERE YOU LIVE, NOTHING. Bad term.
In the Christian-Western tradition, as explained by our
saints – the best teacher of which was Evelyn Underhill {not a mystic, an
intellect who understood them}– we have certain Flags, Lamp-posts,
Light-houses, Symbols, Signposts which tell us WHERE WE ARE in the spiritual
life. For instance,
·
When
does the born-again experience occur?
How does one know?
·
When
does the UNITIVE life begin?
(Ramakrishna described it as when one reaches the Heart Chakra. How does one know they have reached it?)
·
When
does one ascend into sainthood? This
would best be described in our MYSTICAL BETROTHAL TO CHRIST.
·
When
does actual UNION WITH GOD occur? It’s
called THE MYSTICAL MARRIAGE. How do we
know it’s happened?
·
When
can a person say “NO LONGER I LIVE BUT CHRIST IN ME.” This is NONDUALITY, one has BECOME GOD or GOD
REALIZED.
·
What
is the meaning of our Divine Stigmata, which is a grace only Catholics speak of
– it is martyrdom. How would the grace
of martyrdom—giving one’s life for God—be expressed in Eastern terms?
There
are many other QUESTIONS to be discussed on MORALITY—especially regarding
SEX. People need to know the answers, to
end the HYSTERIA on this subject, & bring sanity & logic to ‘Is Sex a
Sin-or a fault? Is sex activity against
spiritual perfection?’
This
is vital, because we need to see the difference between ‘community
standards,’
‘social acceptability,’ & ‘God standards,’ ‘God acceptability.’ Why
did God make sex? If God is all-spiritual, why did God create
sex & all physical things? Is God
low-minded?
There is a beginning of
putting on the table ideas that might culminate in a book, one which takes the
MYSTERY out of the ‘mysterious East’ & put it into words where Westerners
can follow, learn, imitate & reach final Union with God. {They are eagerly following the East, they
want to learn badly, but the Eastern teachings are being presented in a way
that is darkness to us. Clarification is
called for.}
I
propose that we work on such a book. I
think it would benefit both of us in our mission.
In
God’s Love, Rasa Von Werder
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