Commentary on the text “The Master’s Code”
In the teaching there is a basis, a path, and a fruit. The basis is that which serves as the foundation. Let us say that the concepts of “Brahman” and the “natural state” are like a Symbol of Faith; they are what everything revolves around. The path we follow is our practice. The fruit is the final point, the result we want to attain: immortal consciousness, enlightenment, the rainbow body, samadhi.
When we speak about the philosophy of nonduality, the natural state, we are clarifying the issues of the basis. When we speak about methods of practice, deviations, meditation techniques, and the nuances of kriya and kundalini yoga, we are discussing the path. The path is very important to us, and therefore all of us follow the path. If, however, we do not move along the path, then we will not arrive at the fruit, even if we know the basis. The fruit is our future; it is the experiences of the saints that we read about and admire; it is what we strive for, the final point we dream of, for example samadhi. Dhyanas are also an intermediate fruit. But in a practical sense, the path is the most important thing for us, because without the path the basis will not be revealed and the fruit will not manifest.
View, Meditation, Conduct
When we consider the path, it can be divided into three components. It consists of the view (vision), awareness (that is, how we realize the view in daily practice), and action. All these things are connected. Actions are what we do, our conduct.
The view (vision) is the principle of nonduality; it is the same basis, only when we have already become aware of it, when in our mind it becomes our worldview. The view is when we practice self-liberation or clarify for ourselves what nonduality means. Of course, if we have no view, our practice will be chaotic; we will not know what standpoint to take. Perhaps we will grasp the essence of working with energy, but where it leads and what point of view to maintain, we will not understand. Therefore, vision (the view) is very important for us. In some schools, philosophical concepts are associated with the view, that is, the logical understanding that things are empty, that all things are perfection in nonduality, the single Absolute. In laya yoga, the view also implies all this, but it is not enough; the true view is nonconceptual, and therefore it is acquired when we go beyond concepts, when it is as clear to us as how a rabbit might knock off its horns. And then it is said that we have mastered the view. One could say that mastering the view is almost enlightenment.
Another component of the path is awareness or meditation. This is how we bring the view into our life. One can open nonconceptual consciousness by experiencing a certain clarity, but this is not enough; one must make it a continuously flowing stream in everyday life. Therefore, it is said that the view must be realized through awareness or meditation. This is how we practice the principle of awareness, for example, while walking or while sitting in mahashanti.
Finally, when this principle of awareness penetrates us, it can be said that we walk continuously with our view. The view ceases to be an abstraction or some fleeting glimpse; it becomes our life, our breath, something we always carry with us, because we continuously abide in awareness. When the view penetrates us deeply, we come close to action or behavior. This means that, through the practice of awareness, we have become so imbued with the view that it has begun to transform our actions and behavior; it has merged with them. Now the Spirit has descended into the body and begun to guide our actions (the complete dissolution of karma), that is, the view is already manifesting in our behavior. We have realized the view to such an extent through meditation or the maintenance of awareness that our behavior has changed; we have completely disidentified with the human “I” and identified ourselves with the Spirit, with the Absolute. Then qualitative changes occurred in our personality: all attachments and clinging fell away, we gained tremendous flexibility and became completely different. Thus, the third component of the path is behavior, that is, the way the view is realized in all aspects of our life. Behavior is very important because we are compelled to behave in some way even when we are not meditating. Behavior is the criterion by which one can check a person’s level of realization. Even if a person has gained some clarity, meditates well, or is aware of himself, but this is not manifested in behavior, it means that he is still a spiritual novice. It is behavior that is the final point; it is how spirit manifests in matter, in the body, in interaction with the many situations of everyday life.
The text “The Master’s Code” relates precisely to behavior. It is written in twilight language. It does not speak here about meditation or nonduality. It speaks here about behavior, about the qualities of the Master who, it is assumed, has already realized all of this. That is, it simply describes the ultimate goal.
The principle of understanding behavior is very important, since behavior is clear to everyone. We may not understand philosophies or how to meditate, but behavior is clear even to worldly people. In some schools, much attention is paid to behavior, and the Teacher gives transmission precisely through behavior, that is, literally through his appearance or his actions. The principle “do as I do” is applied, or it is simply described how one who has realized feels. By attuning ourselves to such behavior, we can change ourselves very quickly, simply by looking into it and growing into it. You can change yourself quickly right here at this lecture. I can tell you with certainty that a true master will never fall asleep at a lecture; it is impossible. A Master will strive to remain in awareness, no matter how difficult it may be for him, because he understands that precisely at this lecture he may be taught something that will be useful over the next five hundred lives, and if he sleeps through it, then perhaps no one will tell him this for the next five hundred lives.
The Freedom and Perfection of the Master
“For the Master, freedom means the merging of body and energy with the Boundless Spirit, and perfection is the ability to express such merging in behavior.
A true Master is not afraid of his weaknesses; he learns to work with them until they become his strength.”
Weaknesses are kleshas, shortcomings, defilements (sins). When we come to practice, each of us has a certain karmic burden, a store of negative reactions accumulated in the past. Even an infant is not without sin, unless, of course, he is an avatar or a holy reborn being. This means that our subtle bodies are defiled. The process of enlightenment involves the purification of the subtle bodies. In the process of practice, defilements manifest as the yogin’s weaknesses and can attract obstacles. As long as we are not practicing, they are not actualized; they are not visible, because they manifest gradually. But it happens that when we begin to practice intensively, these defilements are also activated and begin to vibrate actively. One could say that these are inner demons that bind the yogin to the lower regions of the astral, arouse the interest of hungry spirits or of someone else. And then various hindrances arise; the spiritual battle of the ascetic begins. This happens especially with those who practice the path of asceticism, of harsh suppression. And such a battle can be very strong. Christian ascetics often described this. There is no one who has not passed through this battle. Weaknesses also include inner desires that prevent one from going straight along the path.
On the path of tantra, a true yogin is not afraid of weaknesses; he knows how to work with them. He understands that the principle of aikido must operate here. If we bring in energy and unite with weaknesses, they can become our inner strength, since we accept the view that there is nothing impure, only the unconscious. This means that if we awaken awareness and unite with an impure klesha, energy, or weakness, then we can take this energy and transform it into something pure, ceasing to be bound by it. Any energy, if we integrate with it, ceases to be a weakness and becomes a strength.
In the absolute sense, even kleshas and impure states are manifestations of the Absolute. For example, pride is a manifestation of all-accomplishing, all-encompassing wisdom that is not recognized by us. Our pride is a reflection of the pride of the gods, which is mixed with our dualistic understanding, while the pride of the gods is the very majesty of the Absolute. Attachment is hidden devotion to the Absolute, only manifested in an impure state, when the Absolute is confused with external objects or people. But if it is purified to pure vision, it will be the pure state itself. Lust is the fierce energy of the Absolute connected with attachment. If it is purified, it turns into the energy of a wrathful deity. Anger is fierce, uncontrolled energy, but if it is purified and brought into awareness, it becomes the space of the dance of harsh energies. Thus, if we understand this and, while in presence, unite all energies and dissolve them, then we see that no weaknesses are real, that they are part of our infinite potential; we simply did not recognize them and considered them something impure. And they are in fact impure, because they take energy from us and bind us to samsara, but as soon as we understand that they flow from the one Source, they lose their power over us. We give them up, offer them to the great Source, and it draws them in. In an energetic sense, this can be imagined as prana that previously flowed out of the chakra, and now begins to be drawn back into the central channel.
The World of Mastery and Method
“Masters recognize one another without words: by the depth of their gaze, the harmony of their movements, the radiance of their eyes, and their power.
A true Master always lives in the world of his method and mastery. If he does not live in the world of his method and mastery, then he is not a Master, for this is an error characteristic of a dilettante.”
What does “the world of mastery” mean? It means that every yogin, while training in his practice, creates a special world in which the laws he adheres to are in effect. And then this world grows to universal proportions, and the yogin lives precisely in it. As long as the yogin’s mastery is not high, he must protect this world so that its harmony is not destroyed. A true master will never allow himself to leave this world. To abandon awareness or contemplation, to take in impure energies, impure thoughts, impure behavior—this is an error characteristic of a neophyte. By “impure” is meant that which destabilizes the practitioner’s method.
This is easy to explain with examples from sports, martial arts, or creativity. A brilliant philosopher is constantly immersed in his philosophy and looks at the world through its “eyes”; he does not accept into his world anything that is lower than his philosophical view. He lives in his own universe, and thanks to this he manifests his freedom and creativity. A martial arts master who has attained perfection constantly lives in the method he practices. The method has merged with his life to such an extent that he is not distracted by anything, being completely immersed in his method. Thanks to the method, he has created an entire universe in which he can move freely. But if he lets in some alien energies, he will lose this degree of freedom.
As you practice, you will understand this principle: at first we have a fragmented consciousness, and then everything is reduced to one thing, and we become so immersed in this one thing that nothing else exists for us. We must become completely immersed in this one thing and make it an entire universe. For us, the natural state plays the role of this one thing. When we have trained ourselves not to lose it, we must then become completely immersed in it. Just as a bhakta who lives only in the world of his deity, eats, sleeps, plays, and dances with it day and night, so too a saint practicing the path of contemplation is completely immersed in his natural state.
“Since the method is very flexible and deep, and mastery is boundless, the Master’s universe has no limits anywhere.”
The method is the path of awareness. Mastery is the depth of maintaining it. When awareness develops and its maintenance is continuous, we enter another dimension, another universe, which has no limitations whatsoever. One could say that the body remains in place, and objects do not disappear anywhere either; however, everything changes. This is the difference in the principle of awareness.
Qualities of a True Master
“The world of mastery is the universe of the Master’s pure mind, created through the perfect application of the method.
A true Master is not attached to anything, yet he does not reject any possibilities either; he will not do anything superfluous, even in what is insignificant.
A true Master is always humble, knowing that he is part of the infinite universe.
A true Master will not allow himself to be distracted or to stop on the Path even for a moment. Nevertheless, who but he knows that his goal is not in the future, but already now, and in the place where he is.
The Master does not need to be convinced; a hint is enough for him. Listening to words, he reads signs.
A true Master possesses the highest self-discipline even in sleep. Only another Master equal to him will be able to understand him.”
When we attain mastery in contemplation, our pure Mind becomes an entire universe, our awareness becomes an entire world in which the yogin lives. It is said that each buddha creates his own pure land. For example, there is Shiva-loka, Kailasa — the pure land of Shiva; Goloka Vrindavana, where Krishna dwells; there are the worlds of Dattatreya, the heavens of Buddha Maitreya (the Tushita heavens), and the pure land of Padmasambhava. This means that these worlds are created by the power of the minds of these saints, and other living beings also live in them. When presence is fully realized, an entire world is created in which the yogin lives alone. Alone in the sense that he becomes the center of this world, the central deity in the mandala; it is his personal universe. Therefore, each awakened one lives in a sole universe; he gives birth to it anew. Among the Daoists, I believe, it is said that when some saint or master leaves the body in the world of humans, a supernova star flares up in the universe. This is well-founded, because a saint is an enormous mass of Clear Light that can manifest in this way on the physical plane. The Puranas tell how the god Vishnu made Dhruva Maharaja the Pole Star (rishi) in the constellation Ursa Minor. And the seven stars in the constellation Ursa Major are not merely metaphors; one could say that they are vast regions of Clear Light that also have their projections on the physical plane.
The Art of Playing Roles
“Sincerely playing roles, a true Master does not lose himself, but only enriches himself.
A true Master moves through the world like a cloud, a dry leaf. There is no place in the Universe to which he would be attached.”
Playing roles, he does not lose himself, but only enriches himself. If you play the role of a woodcutter or a cook and are unconscious while doing so, you will lose yourself. You must feel that if you are doing something, then it is you yourself. If disharmony arises in what you are doing, your “I” may be lost. This happens because you play so sincerely that you forget it is only a role.
In the process of awareness on the path of practice, we play many roles. However, a true yogin enriches himself with roles but does not lose himself. The dilettante, on the other hand, constantly gets lost in these roles and does not see the single thread of meaning that connects them. He identifies with the role so deeply that he forgets who he himself is, and then the Guru or senior monks periodically remind him of this. It is like a person who played the role of a king, a servant, or a soldier in a play, and after the play ended continued to behave in the same way: he would be very distressed by his position as a servant, or, returning home to his family, would behave as arrogantly as a king. When we get carried away in service or in relationships, we resemble such actors. A yogin, playing roles, does not lose himself, but only becomes enriched through them. He knows that this is only the practice of the illusory body.
Thus, as we practice, we acquire the necessary qualities of mastery. This is the standard by which we orient ourselves in the process of life and practice. When we do this, it is said that we realize action, behavior. Our spirit manifests in behavior and begins to merge with matter.
