Get Qualified Part Three: Bhakti and the Gunas

Ola My dearest Isaiah, Thank you for your email once again. Yes i can see how devotion is important in my search for the truth. Keeping a humble atittude towards the self which is everything.I am the emotional type by the way so all this devotional talk makes a lot of sense to me. I am definetely going to take into account your advice and im going to create an altar for devotional practice and prayer. Just not sure about what symbol but I thought of a picture of Ramana or James. Any suggestions??

Isaiah: Yes, those symbols would be good. Really, any symbol that you like will work. My only suggestion is to make sure the symbol inspires you and gets your emotions flowing towards the self, and that the symbol reminds you in some way of your nature as the self. Katie: also, Isaiah thank you sooooo much for reccomending the B.G from the website. I received it today, and just watching the first video (introduction) had a major impact on my inquiry. What a beautiful teaching honestly. Thank you for your suggestion.

Isaiah: Great. The B.G. Videos are excellent because they teach you about spiritual practice as well as self-knowledge. Katie: Isaiah, there are a few things there are bothering me. Those questions come once and a while and when they come i have to write them down quickly otherwise i just loose the train of thought and then its hard to remember it again , so here we go: I now see how important it is to understand isvara and the nature of the field because ifI as Katie dont understand it I (Katie) will always take things personally lacking to understand that there's nothing to do with me but the whole field of existence that gives the results.

Isaiah: Yes, that is correct. There is absolutely nothing personal about it. Isvara (the

field of existence) is not a big person who hands out results according to it's personal whims and fancies. The field of existence (Isvara) is simply a big machine that functions according to set laws (dharmas). There is just actions and then the appropriate responses, nothing more. The idea of this process being personal is an illusion caused by the notion of doer-ship. It is the ego that mistakenly thinks, I performed this action, I got this result and creates the narrative of the apparent person to which certain things happened to. But this idea is false because the ego is merely a thought and a thought cannot perform an action or reap a result. For instance, you say, I walked outside. In this case, the 'I' is the ego, which is a thought. But how can a thought walk outside? It can't. The ego is simply taking credit for the action of the body. But even the body cannot walk outside on it's own. It requires the organs of action. But even with the organs of action, movement is not possible without a field ofaction to move through. So really, an action is only possible because of several distinct parts (of which the ego is just one), working together to form a 'chain' of events. The ego may initiate the action, but then the appropriate organ of action takes over. In turn, the body moves. But the body can only move because there is a field for it to move in. Lastly, and most importantly, none of this process is even possible without thepresence of awareness, which exists independently of the ego. So, even though this is all just an impersonal process consisting of several different parts, which depends entirely on the presence of awareness, the ego lays claim to the whole thing saying, I walked outside. This idea of ownership and doer-ship is what makes up the idea of 'your' personal story.

The good news, of course, is that the whole impersonal field of existence, as well as thefalse notion of doer-ship and the subsequent 'personal' story that arises from it are just objects appearing in you. They affect you not; you cannot be what you see. As you can see, understanding this is of the utmost importance for moksha because it disentanglesyour personal psychology from Isvara and helps you break your identification with it. None of it (the body/mind, actions and results i.e. the apparent person and their story) belongs to you at all. It is all just Isvara's stuff. Katie: Also, inquiry is revealing that the whole problem that the apparent person has isnot understanding that she's not lacking anything. I am FULL,complete.. but when my desires and fears are too strong it makes it look like if I just get what i (think) i want i will be happy.. but this is the basic mistake.. is this the ignorance we talk about????

Isaiah: Yes, ignorance makes it look like you are incomplete when you are actually complete; this forces you to chase objects to alleviate your sense of incompleteness. Of course, this is futile because objects are impermanent and your desires are ever-

changing. So chasing objects can, at best, lead to moments of happiness interwoven with moments of sorrow. This is the root of the experience vs. knowledge issue. Since you are already whole and complete, then no object will make you what you already are. The only solution is to understand clearly that you are already whole. Otherwise, you will be stuck in an endless and ineffective pursuit of freedom through objects.

Katie: This also brings me to another question.. ok so i am full... complete.. lacking nothing.. so then what?? I mean.. I AM IT THEN!!! whats to want?? but then whats the point?? whats the point to do anything?? if there's nothing to achieve?? THIS IS IT.

Isaiah: Spoken like a true jnani. Moksha is understanding that you are awareness. Awareness is referred to as 'already accomplished' because it is already whole and complete. No action can make it that way because there is absolutely no way to add to it, or take away from it. When you understand you are awareness, then the entire 'purpose' of life is 'accomplished' because every pursuit is simply for the sake of wholeness / limitlessness i.e. freedom. Since awareness is already free, then knowing you are it shows you that your freedom is 'already accomplished': there is nothing to achieve. This negates the idea that there is a 'point' to do anything, because you are the 'point', or in other words, you are already what you were trying to get through action. Moksha also destroys your sense of doer-ship (identification with the ego), so there is nothing to 'do' because you are action-less awareness.

But this all hinges on whether you clearly understand you are awareness. The knowledge is starting to take shape in your mind, intellectually speaking, but it is not yet firm and unshakable. So, for the time being there is definitely something you need to do: completely dedicate yourself to rigorous spiritual practice along with continuousself-inquiry. Over time, the ignorance will drop away and the knowledge will become steady. Katie: Also, i dont think i understand the whole talk about the gunas.. do you know where can i gather more information about it? James used to say that the "gunas" do everything and they "run" the person.. what does that mean?? Thank for everything my dear.

LoveKatie

Isaiah: You can read chapters ten and eleven in James's book. They go into depth about the gunas as well as how to 'manage' them. This yoga of the three gunas is a very valuable tool for your spiritual practice,and it was one of the next few things I was going to discuss with you. It's a far reaching topic, so review the chapters and tell me what isn't clear.

In a nutshell: The macrocosmic causal body is composed of sattva, rajas, and tamas: the three gunas. The macrocosmic causal body is one way of thinking of Isvara: it is awareness appearing as the creator, the cause of the entire field of experience as well as it's operator. So saying that the gunas 'do' everything and 'run' the person really justmeans that Isvara does everything and runs the person. If you want to understand what Isvara is and how it operates, you have to understand the gunas. The gunas are un-manifest, but every part of your experience, gross and subtle, are their manifest effects. The implication is that when you understand the gunas, which operate under predictable patterns, then you can more effectively manage your life and gain a pure mind, suited for inquiry; for instance, if you understand what rajas and tamas are, then you can identify their effects and take appropriate action to reduce their presence in your mind. Most importantly, understanding the gunas helps you to identify and objectify experience in general (Isvara), and in turn, dis-identify yourself from it. Like I said before, the whole of your experience is 'Isvara's stuff', it doesn't belong to you; theroot of ignorance is thinking that it does. The fact of the matter is that if there is 'anyone' doing anything, it is just the gunas. The whole field of existence is just playing out, impersonally and on it's own. Understanding this is a powerful aid to destroying one's sense of doer-ship as well as one's identification with experience.

As I previously mentioned, the gunas make up the causal body and the causal body is the creator / operator of the field of existence. Each guna is endowed with a particular power. To understand each guna better we can analyze what is needed for creation to take place. First, in any creation, an idea i.e. intelligence or creativity is needed. For example, if you were going to build a house, first you would need an idea for it as well as the required intelligence to build it. This is the power of sattva; it is the illuminating power necessary for intelligence, knowledge etc. Second, you would need a material to create with. Once you have the idea for the house, you need building materials. This is the power of tamas; it is responsible for substance, or matter. Third, in order to actualize your idea, you need power to shape the creation. When you have the idea forthe house, as well as the building materials, you still need energy to put them together. This is the power of rajas; it is the energy that shapes and animates the creation. If youlook at the field of existence you will see it is nothing but these three powers: the idea and intelligence of the creation, the substance of the creation, and the power that

shapes and animates the creation. When you see an object, such as a lamp, you are seeing the manifestation of the gunas: there is the idea (knowledge of the lamp), which is sattva; there is the substance of the lamp (matter) which is tamas; there is the energy that formed the matter into a lamp and maintains it's molecular structure, which is rajas. On a psychological level, sattva is intelligence, creativity, peace, equilibrium, pleasure etc. Rajas is agitation, desire, anger, anxiety etc. Tamas is dullness, apathy, denial, fear, etc. Since everything in the creation is caused by the gunas, everything in the creation is influenced by the gunas. This includes foods, environments, forms of entertainment, and occupations as well as how you handle money, sex and relationships. When you understand the nature of the gunas, it is easier to identify their effects in your mind and environment.

Rajas and tamas are the cause of ignorance. Rajas is a projecting power; tamas is a veiling power. First, tamas seems to 'obscure' or 'cover' the self. It makes it seem like the self doesn't exist (notice I use the word 'seem' because it is not actually possible forthe self to be obscured, covered, or non-existent). Once tamas is in effect, and the self has been 'covered', rajas is able to project the world of objects onto it. Owing to the non-apprehension of the self (because of tamas) we mistakenly identify with the world of objects and take them to be our identity. We believe that we are limited and separate from everything, so we are forced to run out into the world to chase objects.

Once you have read over this e-mail and reviewed the chapters I mentioned, let me know if anything isn't clear.

Sincerely,Isaiah