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How Emily Bronte found her Divine Self

No coward soul is mine,
No trembler in the world’s storm-troubled sphere:
I see Heaven’s glories shine,
And Faith shines equal, arming me from Fear.

O God within my breast,
Almighty, ever-present Deity!
Life, that in me has rest,
As I, undying Life, have power in Thee!

Vain are the thousand creeds
That move men’s hearts: unutterably vain;
Worthless as withered weeds,
Or idlest froth amid the boundless main,

To waken doubt in one
Holding so fast by Thy infinity,
So surely anchored on
The steadfast rock of Immortality.

With wide-embracing love
Thy Spirit animates eternal years,
Pervades and broods above,
Changes, sustains, dissolves, creates, and rears.

Though earth and moon were gone,
And suns and universes ceased to be,
And Thou wert left alone,
Every existence would exist in Thee.

There is not room for Death,
Nor atom that his might could render void:
Thou–thou art Being and Breath,
And what thou art may never be destroyed.

Emily Bronte wrote the foregoing only a matter of weeks before her death, revealing a profundity of spiritual realization that belied her confined nineteenth-century rural Yorkshire background. Upanishadic as the above stanzas may be, the insights expressed therein seem to have arisen totally from within her own divine spirit. Years before she penned these lines, she wrote a poem in which the experience of samadhi is described as well as it can be. (There is a very slight chance that during her brief period of education in Brussels she might have come across a French translation of the Upanishads. This would not, however, account for the Advaitic content of her poetry written before that time.

Emily Bronte has something in common with Arjuna: she was facing death. She was facing her own imminent death, and Arjuna was facing the surety of death for many he beheld on both sides assembled on the battlefield of Kurukshetra, as well as the likelihood of his own death. From the depths of her own immortal self (atma) the assurance of immortality arose in the mind and heart of Emily. From the front of his chariot, the voice of Krishna entered into the ears of Arjuna, awakening his innate understanding, enabling him to see, as did Emily Bronte, the truth of his own immortal being.

One thing that marks out the various world religions from the vision of the Vedic rishis is the fact that they all claim to have a “new” message for a “new” age, a heretofore unheard-of annunciation of truth. The rishis, quite to the contrary, knew–and said–that they were speaking eternal facts that were no more geared to the times or contemporary than are the principles of mathematics. Consequently, as Sri Ramakrishna stated: “The Hindu religion alone is the Sanatana Dharma. The various creeds you hear of nowadays have come into existence through the will of God and will disappear again through His will. They will not last forever.…The Hindu religion has always existed and will always exist.” (The Gospel of Sri Ramakrishna, p. 642) The religion of the Vedas, Upanishads, and Bhagavad Gita alone are the Eternal Religion (Sanatana Dharma), for it is oriented toward eternity, not toward time, and takes into consideration only the Unchanging in the midst of the ever-changing.

Just as it was the spirit, the true self, of Emily Bronte that was speaking in this poem, so it is our own true self that is speaking to us through the mouth of Krishna in the Bhagavad Gita. When I first read the Gita, I did not have a sense of reading some ancient document or primeval wisdom spoken through the lips of a long-departed sage or avatar. Rather I felt that my own soul was speaking to me directly, that I was being taught by my own self guiding me toward realization of my ultimate Self: God. I did not “accept” or “adopt” a religion–I awoke to the truth of myself and God. The Vedic sages did not have a religion in the commonly accepted sense: they had a Vision. And the Gita called me to that same vision, and pointed me toward meditation (yoga as the only means of gaining it. The Gita gave me a pretty good idea of yoga, and Patanjali filled in the rest. Although she had no such books to guide and inspire her, the Yogi of Haworth, Emily Bronte, nonetheless attained the Vision by turning within and letting her inmost consciousness lead her to the Divine Center.

• Read more about the Bhagavad Gita.
• Coming soon: A full commentary on the Bhagavad Gita as a free PDF download.

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A Continuation of “What Is the Mind?: A Meditator’s Guide“

“Mind precedes its objects. They are mind-governed and mind-made.”

First there is the mind. Let us go deeper than we have so far. It is possible to view “mind” as both the perception machinery we have been talking about and the consciousness which perceives the perception, the consciousness that is unconditioned and permanent-in other words, the spirit, the eternal self. (”The Self is ear of the ear, mind of the mind, speech of speech. He is also breath of the breath, and eye of the eye” –Kena Upanishad 2) From this higher aspect of Mind all things proceed-in both the macrocosmic and the microcosmic sense. From the Mind of God all things are projected that are found in the cosmos; and from the mind of the individual are projected all that are distinctive to his life.

We are all co-creators with God, even though we have long ago forgotten that and attributed everything that goes on in our life as acts of God. From this delusion erroneous religion has arisen-religion that thinks it necessary to pray to and propitiate God in order for the “good” to come to us and the “bad” to be eliminated from our life. It is this religion and its false God that Buddha adamantly rejected and from which we must be freed if we are to gain any true understanding of what is really happening to us from life to life. On the other hand, we need true religion-the conviction and aspiration for the uniting of the finite consciousness with the Infinite Consciousness in eternal Being. The call of the self to the Self is the essence of true religion, and in that sense those who would turn from death to life must be thoroughly religious. Any god that is separate from us is a false god; the true God is the very Self of our self. Though distinct from us, He is not separate. We are eternally one with Him. But we have to realize that-not intellectually only, but through direct experience. And that experience is only possible in meditation.

Seven profound implications

All right: mind precedes its objects, which are themselves governed and made by the mind. This has profound implications.

1. Karma is the creation of the mind-is simply the mind in extension. Karma need not be worked out or fulfilled; the mind need only be changed, or better yet brought into complete abeyance. Then karma is no more and its attendant compulsions-including birth and death-no longer exist.
2. Our entire life experience is but a mirroring of the mind. If something is not already within our mind it cannot be projected outward as a (seemingly) external factor or experience of our life. So our life is our mind in motion! By observing it we can come to know what is in our mind. If we do not like what is happening in our life, the solution is to alter our mind. People who like to tell of how cruel, selfish, dishonest, and disloyal others habitually are to them are merely telling us how cruel, selfish, dishonest, and disloyal they are. “Victims” are only victimizers in a down cycle. The moment the upswing comes in their life rhythms they will go back to victimizing others. Action and reaction are purely psychological matters, the film in the projector-the light and sound on the screen being only its projection. Change the film and you change the experience. Since objects come from the mind they can only be compatible with the mind and therefore express and reveal its character.
3. All the factors of “life” are really only thought, attitude, and outlook in manifestation.
4. Study your life and thereby know your mind.
5. You are always in control, even though that control may be on an unconscious level.
6. Change your mind and you change your life. (Do not forget that “mind” includes consciousness.)
7. Mary Baker Eddy was right: All is Mind and Mind is All.

Action and reaction

“To speak or act with a defiled mind is to draw pain after oneself, like a wheel behind the feet of the animal drawing it.” –Dhammapada 1

Suffering is inevitable for the person with a defiled mind, for it is impossible not to act or think (speak inwardly, even if not outwardly). “Good” or meritorious acts done by a person with a defiled mind will bring suffering-perhaps not as much as evil acts, but still the suffering will not be avoided. This is imperative for us to comprehend: Action is not the determining factor in our life-Mind is! And mind alone. This why in the Bhagavad Gita (See Chapter Seventeen: The Yoga of the Division of Threefold Faith) Krishna describes how bad people do good in a bad way and thus accrue more misery to themselves.

It is so important to understand this fact, since we tend to mistakenly assume that “good” acts produce “good” karma, etc., when in reality the actions mean nothing-it is the condition of the mind that determines their character and therefore their consequences. (Buddha was very insistent on this.) Selfish people do “unselfish” deeds to either cover up their selfishness or to get merit for themselves so they can enjoy this or a future life. Their intentions defile the actions and no good accrues to them whatsoever. Instead their selfishness and pettiness is compounded! This is the plain truth. False religion gets rich on such persons with false promises of merit and remission of sins. And even after death the deception goes on as their relatives and friends offer prayers and almsdeeds that supposedly will mitigate their negative karmas and alleviate-or even eliminate-the after-death consequences of their defiled thoughts and deeds. It is common to hear patently evil people excused on the grounds of “all the good” they do along with their evil actions. The truth is plain: evil minds can only produce evil actions that produce evil results.

How then can a negative person break the pattern of negativity and escape it? By thinking and acting with the intention to change from negative to positive. The admission of negativity and the resolution to turn from it can produce positive thoughts and deeds when the intention is to change the consciousness, not just the consequences. Without the desire for real change nothing worthwhile can take place in the life.

Unavoidable good

Buddha then repeats his statement about the nature of objects and then continues:

“To speak or act with a pure mind, is to draw happiness after oneself, like an inseparable shadow.” –Dhammapada 2

What is defiled and what is pure? Buddha is speaking of something much more than good and bad thoughts and deeds in the ordinary sense. Instead, he is speaking of defiled and pure minds. What is a defiled mind? One that is smudged and clogged with egotism and its demon attendants: selfishness, greed, jealousy, spite, hatred, and materiality. A pure mind is free from all these things, including the root of egotism. Further, a defiled mind is outward-turned and a pure mind is inward-turned. One roves through the jungle of illusion and delusion that is the world of man’s making, and the other rests in the truth and perfection of its immortal self. A person who is spirit-oriented cannot but produce peace and happiness for himself. It is as inevitable as the suffering of the matter-oriented person. It is a matter of polarity of consciousness.

Again we see that suffering and happiness are matters of the mind alone.

Further Reading:

• The text of the Dhammapada, translated by John Richards.
• More commentary on the Dhammapada.

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“Mind precedes its objects. They are mind-governed and mind-made.”
–Dhammapada 1

What is the mind? The language of Buddha, as well as Pali, in which his complete teachings are set down, was based on Sanskrit, so we can get some understanding by looking at the Sanskrit terms from which the Pali was derived. (In fact, we may get a better understanding than if we rely on the Pali commentaries and their explanations, considering that they were begun exactly five hundred years after the death of Buddha, who had stated that in five hundred years the dharma he was preaching would begin to be lost. Exactly five hundred years after his passing away the Theravada school began writing the commentaries that have become the cornerstone of Theravada orthodoxy, and the Mahayana sutras began to be written.)

Sanskrit and Pali have the same word for mind: mana. Mana comes from the root verb man, which means “to think.” However, mind takes in more territory than the intellect; it includes the senses and the emotions, because it is in response to feelings and sensory impressions that thoughts arise in the attempt to label and understand them. Evolved minds have the capacity to think abstractly and to determine what shall be experienced by the senses or the feelings. That is, in lesser evolved minds these impressions precede thought, but in higher evolved minds thought becomes dominant and not only precedes those impressions but also determines them.

Undoubtedly this is progress, but like everything in relative existence it has a down side, and that is the capacity of the mind to “create reality” rather than simply respond to it or classify it. Perception is not a matter of exact and undistorted experience. Perception itself is learned and is therefore extremely subjective. People born blind who have gained their sight in later childhood or even in adulthood have said that it took them weeks to tell the difference between circles, squares, triangles, and other geometric shapes-as well as the difference between many other kinds of visual impressions. This tells us that we do not just perceive spontaneously through the senses. We learn perception-it is not just a faculty. In other words, the senses do not perceive; it is the mind alone that perceives even though it uses the impressions of the senses as its “raw material” for those perceptions. Objectivity in human beings is virtually impossible. We might even hazard the speculation that objectivity is impossible outside of enlightenment.

All of the foregoing might worry us greatly-indeed, the insight into this truth about the nature of the mind may well be the seed of paranoia, for it is well-known that the Eastern description of the enlightened mind and personality is closely akin to what modern psychiatry calls paranoid schizophrenia. Some might say they are identical, but they would be wrong, for the enlightened respond to their vision with positive behavior, peacefulness of mind, and lovingkindness towards others. The mentally ill, on the other hand, respond with anxiety, fear, hostility, and mistrust of others. The sage has profound self-understanding, whereas the paranoid schizophrenic has almost no self-realization at all. (More than one psychiatric nurse has told me that they often took their problems to the paranoic schizophrenics in their charge, who gave them remarkably insightful and wise advice. But regarding themselves, those same patients were just plain crazy and without a clue. This is a terrible and cruel dichotomy.)

Life experience as a training film

The understanding to be gained from all this is that our life experiences are a training film, an exercise in the development of consciousness with the mind as its main instrument. We are to look and learn. The question of “Is it real?” is almost irrelevant, “Is it comprehensible?” being more vital. There is a sense in which the individual alone exists and all that he experiences is but the shifting patterns of the movies of the mind-but for a purpose: insight that leads to freedom from the need of any more movies. Then the liberated can rest in the truth of his own self.

The problem is that those who have only an intellectual idea about the relation of experience to reality-ourselves-will come to erroneous conclusions that may result in very self-destructive thought and behavior. And those observing them will rightly consider them either fools or lunatics. Only right experience garnered from right meditation and right thought (which is based on meditation) can clear away the clouds of non-perception and misperception and free us.

The demarcation between “out there” and “in here” must become clear to us in a practical sense. We must also come to understand that “real” and “unreal” have both correct and mistaken definitions, that all our perceptions are interpretations of the mind and never the objects themselves. Our perceptions may be more or less correct as to the nature of the outside object, but how can we know? The enlightened of all ages have told us that a stage of evolution can be reached in which the mind is no longer necessary, a state in which we can go beyond the mind and enter into direct contact and communication with “out there” and then perceive objects as they truly are-or at least as they momentarily “are.” The knowledge of temporality or eternality is inseparable from that state, so confusion cannot arise regarding them.

Our childish concepts

In our childish way we always think of perfection as consisting of all our good traits greatly increased and our bad traits eradicated. (If we are “good” enough children to admit we have bad traits, that is.) We think of God as being just like us, but with His goodness expanded to boundless dimension, and badness impossible to Him. In the same way we think of eternity as time without end rather than a state that transcends time. Our ideas of eternal life are pathetic since we have no idea what life is, much less eternity. It only follows, then, that our ideas of enlightenment and liberation are equally puerile and valueless. This is why the wise center their attention on spiritual practice rather than theology and philosophy. Experience-Right Experience-will make all things clear or else enable us to see that they do not exist.

At the moment we can say that we do not know just what the mind is, but we are working on knowing it. So let us again set forth the opening words of the Dhammapada in the next article: The Mind As Source of All: Profound Implications.

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Q: Could you tell me something about the Antichrist?

A: The subject of “antichrist” does not interest us. We need to know Christ. The rest will take care of itself.

Read about Jesus’ real teachings.

The Importance of Character in Spiritual Life

“Tranquility, restraint, austerity, purity, forgiveness, and uprightness, knowledge, wisdom, and faith in God are the duties of the brahmins, born of their innate nature.”
–Bhagavad Gita 18:42

It is time for vocabulary-building and review!

A brahmin is one striving for brahmajnana, so we must cultivate the qualities listed for them assiduously if we really plan to succeed in our spiritual quest. Here they are:

• Shama is calmness, tranquility, and control of the internal sense organs.
• Dama is self-control, control of the senses, and restraint.
• Tapas (tapasya) is austerity, practical (i.e., result-producing) spiritual discipline; spiritual force.
• Shaucha is purity and cleanliness, including physical and mental purity. Physical shaucha involves purity of diet–abstinence from meat, fish, eggs, alcohol, nicotine, and any mind-altering drugs.
• Kshama is forgiveness, patience, and forbearance.
• Arjava is straightforwardness, honesty, and rectitude.
• Jnana is knowledge, especially knowledge of (or about) Reality or Brahman, the Absolute.
• Vijnana is the highest knowledge, beyond mere theoretical knowledge. It is transcendental knowledge or knowing, a high state of spiritual realization in which all is seen as manifestations of Brahman. It is final knowledge of the Self.
• Astikyam is piety and belief in God.

What is to be noted about these traits is the fact that they are the prerequisites for spiritual life–they are not spiritual life itself, which is something even higher, the state of yogayukta, of continual uniting of the consciousness with God through yoga. It is sad to see that in most religions the things needed for being a beginner are considered the highest attainments.

Most important is the fact that these traits are not artificial or imposed modes of thought and deed, but are a manifestation of the brahmin’s swabhava–his inherent state of mind, his state of deep inner being. A brahmin is not one who acts like a brahmin, but who IS a brahmin and therefore acts accordingly.

The kshatriyas

“Heroism, majesty, firmness, skill, not fleeing in battle, generosity, and lordly spirit are the duties of the kshatriyas, born of their nature.”
–Bhagavad Gita 18:43

These are traits needed by us, too for as a person passes from lower to higher caste he retains his positive qualities. So we should consider the qualities of all the castes as necessary for us.

• Sauryam is heroism, valor, and strength.
• Tejas is radiance and brilliance of mind and spirit.
• Dhriti is the quality of being steadfast, constant, firm, patient, and endurant. It also means one possessed of the ability to engage in sustained effort.
• Dakshyam is skill, virtuosity, and dexterity. One who is daksha is expert, intelligent, wise, and able.
• Apalayanam is not fleeing battle or trying to avoid conflict.
• Danam is generosity, charity, and a giving disposition, as well as self-sacrifice.
• Ishwarabhava is a lordly disposition or spirit; nobility and dignity.

All these reveal the swabhava of a kshatriya.

The vaishyas and shudras

“Plowing, cow-herding, and trade are the duties of the vaishyas, born of their innate nature. Service is the duty of the shudras, born of their innate nature.”
–Bhagavad Gita 18:44

This is quite straightforward. It is interesting that only physical actions are listed, whereas both the brahmins and kshatriyas require many psychological factors. Obviously vaishyas and shudras require ethical principles as much as anyone else. In fact, all that has been said in the previous chapters of the Gita applies to all the castes.

Everyone–swakarma

Krishna now speaks of humanity in general, saying:

“Devoted to his own duty, a man attains perfection. Hear then how one who is devoted to his own duty finds perfection: By worshiping with his own proper duty Him from Whom all beings have their origin, Him by whom all this universe is pervaded, mind finds perfection.”
–Bhagavad Gita 18:45,46

We have already encountered swabhava and swadharma–the inmost disposition of the Self and the dharma (usually translated “duty”) that reveals the Self or makes attainment of the Self possible. In these two verses we meet the word swakarma: action that reflects or manifest the Self–at least in Its present state of evolution. To follow or engage in our swakarma is to worship God, for spiritual, evolutionary principles are not to be merely ascribed to or discussed, they are to be lived. That is how we evolve, and evolution is the sole purpose of creation.

Swakarma is an inseparable part of swadharma, so Krishna continues: “Better one’s own duty [swadharma], though imperfect, than the duty of another well performed; performing the duty prescribed by one’s own nature [swabhava], one does not incur evil.” (Bhagavad Gita 18:47) We are not talking here of “God’s will” in the awful fear-filled way of Western religion. We are talking of our own nature, which has been put into our hands and which we alone can perfect. If we violate our nature by work alien to that nature, however good it may appear or how much it may be praised by others, we incur evil, for we sin against ourself.

Therefore: “One should not abandon the duty to which one is born even though it be deficient. Indeed, all undertakings are enveloped by error as fire is by smoke.” (Bhagavad Gita 18:48) Two expressions in in verse are very important: sahajam karma and dosha.

Sahaja means that which is innate, actually inborn. Karma is action. So sahajam karma is that kind of action, that way of life, which is a natural expression of our innate character, of our deep mind. This must be engaged in, even though, as Krishna points out, all relative existence and action are obscured to a greater or lesser degree by dosha–dosha being imperfection, blemish, fault, or shortcoming. This is because of the innate nature of relativity itself, which fundamentally is Maya, or illusion.

We do the best we can with what we have. The reward is infinite.

Related articles: How to Misuse Your Power of Thought

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Q: You seem to accept that the Hindu/Buddhist concept of reincarnation is compatible with Christianity. How is this, and how is it that the Chritian churches are apparently ignorant of this dramatic data?

A: Reincarnation is not an exclusively Hindu-Buddhist teaching, but has from the beginning been an integral part of Orthodox Judaism. Because this fact would imply that Christ and the Apostles would have held the belief in rebirth as Orthodox Jews, it has become a policy to toss around the red herring of “Hindu-Buddhist” whenever the ignorant have wished to combat the truth of reincarnation. (We met one bishop who thought Edgar Cayce had originated the concept of rebirth and so called all who believed in it “Cayce-ites.” It seems that ignorance compounds itself.)

If you are interested in a historical study of reincarnation in both Judaism and Christianity, I recommend May A Christian Believe In Reincarnation? The British Methodist minister Leslie Weatherhead has also written an article on the subject, but I do not know if it is still in print. I am sure that you could track it down through Interlibrary Loan. There is another book entitled Reincarnation For Christians that you might find significant as well. The three Weatherhead-Cranston anthologies on reincarnation also contain material from Christian writers. Another book is Reincarnation In Christianity by Dr. Geddes MacGregor, who I believe is a Presbyterian.

There is a great difference between what some Christians know and what they say they knows. Some knowledge is simply swept under the convenient carpet of cowardly silence and some is outright denied.

A sad denial

One leading archpriest within a major “canonical” Byzantine Orthodox jurisdiction within this country not only believes in reincarnation, but has engaged for years in research into methods of past-life recall. Our monastery has done research for him on the subject of reincarnation in early Christianity, and that research has been embodied in May A Christian Believe In Reincarnation? I am sorry to tell you that this very priest also publicly denounces reincarnation as incompatible with Orthodox Christianity! This is because of the vicious fear and ignorance which was sanctified and canonized by the Emperor Justinian through his falsification of the decrees of the so-called Fifth Ecumenical Council. (Both Roman Catholic and Protestant scholars have written on the subject of the falsification of the decree, among them being the eminent Catholic-and later Old Catholic-theologian Von Dollinger. A brief discussion is also included in the Nicene Fathers series.)

I well remember discussions with a very learned Greek Orthodox theologian on the subject of reincarnation. Although he knew the truth of the matter, he continually took refuge in the assertion that “at this late date” it would be impossible to speak the truth since it was commonly held that an “infallible” Council had declared the beliefs in pre-existence of the soul and rebirth to be false. (The fact is, reincarnation was not at all mentioned in the interpolated decrees, though pre-existence was.)

Another ploy besides attributing the concept of reincarnation to Hinduism and Buddhism is to attribute it to “the heretic” Origen. This is also quite convenient, as it draws attention from the fact that other Church Fathers also openly taught it.

My favorite comment on the subject of reincarnation is that given by the holy Roman Catholic Capuchin stigmatist-saint, Padre Pio. When one of his spiritual daughters was “told on” for believing in reincarnation, he told her accusers very firmly: “It does not matter what you believe about reincarnation. The only thing that matters is this: Are you seeking for God now?”