When we first begin the spiritual journey, the key is the culturing of pure consciousness within, our true Self beneath the story and drama of a me.
I recommend an effortless meditation as this brings us most easily to that experience of pure consciousness, also known as samadhi, transcendence, turiya, restful alertness, and so forth.
As that experience is cultured within, we release the barriers to living who we are and culture the ground for spiritual awakening. At some point, a person or event serves as a catalyst for the shift and we become the consciousness we’ve always been.
If we continue to culture the journey, we continue to develop in consciousness until we recognize ourselves as everything, infinitely and at every point within itself, even to “the farthest reaches of the universe beyond perception.”
This process can include the profound experience of the divine in various ways, like how the world comes to be and the major “powers” in creation.
At the height of development in consciousness, the opportunity comes to transcend it, just as we once transcended the me-self. We can step beyond Self and into Brahman, beyond consciousness and existence. As I’ve written about elsewhere, the first part of Brahman is often dominated by what is no longer here. We know a no-self nothingness.
This is a little like early on where the experience of pure consciousness was mostly noticed as a blank space without thought or other content. Only later did we recognize what was there, what contained all experience.
As we settle more deeply into Brahman, beyond the screen of consciousness, we discover a level of pure divinity beyond the most profound experiences prior. But this divinity is not something we can know with consciousness. It can only be known by itself.
In other words, we have to go beyond consciousness into Brahman. Only then can the circumstances be laid out for pure divinity to be realized.
The distinction between divine form and pure divinity might be compared to the amount of awareness we recognize in dream state with sat chit ananda (absolute bliss consciousness) where consciousness is our living reality. But the contrast of divinity is of greater size.
This is not to diminish the profound experiences and descriptions of the divine in form. Rather, it is to give some perspective on how much more profound pure divinity is.
It is not easy to describe as it is without form. It is prior to all creation and any distinctions. But it is with a power and potency beyond conception. We discover even infinite consciousness that contains all of creation is but a pale shadow of divinity.
It also makes it amusing when we hear someone awake say the divine is a delusion. Sure – many of the ideas out there about it are rather skewed. But the divine itself? Pure divinity.
Davidya
Last Updated on February 19, 2018 by Davidya
Fascinating.
This question might seem strange, but does pure divinity know what it is? Can it be known by itself to itself?
Hi Grant
Yes, divinity is knowledge itself.
As yes, as noted in the article, consciousness is a shadow of it so is insufficient to look upon it. But when consciousness recognizes itself as divinity, then divinity can look upon divinity.
This isn’t something for the mind to figure out as we’re talking about nuances beyond even cosmic mind. The point of articles like this is to put the process into a more complete context. Those close to this then have some context and those for whom this is unfolding have some language.
Human potential is vastly greater than most recognize.
Hi David,
Thanks for writing this. It’s written very clearly with precision and I understand each step along the way thru the “eyes” of my own experience.
Especially the part where you say, …’a person or event serves as a catalyst for the shift…”
I feel like that is still happening to me but it doesn’t take long for me to see the Truth behind the catalyst as a question sinks into Being…it’s as though my Sadguru…lol is helping along the way Big time. (Like on my last post to you things have become more clear). It’s like there are no mistakes…really…because they transmute into clearer thinking.
For example when Jesus said, ‘The Truth will set you free’, has a much deeper meaning than before. The truth that we all face each day, are we going to resist or union with it? To resist is still truth but to join with it leads to Truth which sets us free.
One question: Couldn’t someone say the divine is a delusion? When the body finally falls away, not only does the body go but the mind, consciousness, God, even Brahman and “we” merge into That which really has no name or is that what you are calling Pure Divinity?
Thanks.
Hi David
Yes – no mistakes. We may call something a “mistake” when it was not what we wanted but if we follow where it leads, we find better results than we could have come up with.
Sometimes, I speak of everything being just flow and resistance to flow. However, there are times when resistance is appropriate.
For example, when consciousness wishes to look upon divinity, it will meet with resistance. Aware but unable to face it. Reminiscent of Chapter 11 of the Bhagavad Gita only without the form.
(laughs) Sure – lots of people say the divine is a delusion because it’s not part of their experience. What they know is beliefs that cause people trouble. Ken Wilbur described it as a mythic throwback to a bygone era.
What this points to is insufficient refinement for the mechanics to be known. For example, some will talk of being the detached observer. The body continues to act and speak but it is not myself that is doing it. What then is? I’ve seen people use explanations like “instinct”. But it’s much more informative when you become aware of the principles that are behind all form.
This is not to say everyone will see those principles as embodied. Some do maintain an impersonal approach. And they may also avoid words like God and divine.
But at some point, the divine overwhelms all of that as it is so much more than everything. (laughs)
Hi David – Yours is an interesting comment about Ken Wilbur. I knew nothing about him except to follow a recommended link maybe ten years ago, and saw a video of this guy trying to give the impression of being very erudite, yet he was sitting on an unmade bed, in a not very fresh t-shirt. I could almost smell the room. It just kind of grossed me out, and I lost any further interest in him. Although correlation is not causation, your comment doesn’t surprise me in the least.
Hi Jim
I initially found Wilburs work interesting. But then I saw how he was bending models to fit his model and dismissing anything that didn’t fit. A smart man but a bit of a slave to his concepts. That can create a barrier to progress.
That old principle of knowledge is different in different states… is very wise. Put another way, truth evolves as we do. If we try to hold on to or worship “the truth”, we’re just identifying with our current understanding. That too shall pass. (laughs)
As for the body falling away, it’s not been my experience that everything falls away. Certainly the connection to the physical and emotional body behind that. But the higher mind and consciousness don’t depart.
Where we go depends on karma and spiritual development. I wrote about that here:
https://davidya.ca/2016/05/03/death-of-a-yogi/
I’ve written several articles on the subject – just search Death.
We don’t merge into pure divinity as we where never created from it. We merge into our universality that we arose from, if that is the path taken. Pure divinity is well beyond creation. That’s why “pure”.
Oh so perfect and funny…I should have read this before my reading and commenting on the Oneness vs Oneness blog…you made it much clearer…yes, lol. Pure Divinity could be the Zero Point? Pure pure pure… Thanks again!
Hi Lindsey
Zero Point is technically a concept from physics referring to the ground state of matter fields. In a sense, it is the resting point of matter. The term is a bit misleading though as it’s not a point except in terms of measurement. Like temperature. It’s also more about the wave state.
The idea is that if we can learn to tap into the free energy in space, we’d have abundant cheap ‘ability to do work’. Like “quantum” and “dimension” the word has also been picked up in New Age circles somewhat awkwardly.
Zero is also a conceptual idea in a number field. All of this relates to highly expressed values in our universe.
Personally, I would not remotely associate that with pure divinity. Keep in mind, this is beyond all things, even self-referral consciousness.
As you say, pure pure pure. 🙂
Ah…that’s what Zero point is…yes, I misunderstood it for pure pure pure divinity. Thank you for correcting and clarifying. Yes, it is this and not at all the material. It feels that the vibrating blissful Hum is then consciousness moving into form (and pure is still pure). This i experienced after a crashing above my crown chakra, which was not long after another an important kundalini kind of shift had happened where it felt like a burning boiling merging into the crown chakra experience of vibrating bliss that never left (even though I had increases of energy over the years and a folding down like,a helmet feeling then the downloading experiences and embodiment experiences with several Symbols of Gods (not to get too personal) and some help by a few ascended masters – their vibrations were significant so I felt they weren’t phonies) the bliss steadied to more peaceful, calm, vibrating overall well-being nice-best I can say). It was with the merging that I feel is the beginning of Oneness and Unity (as a vibrating, silent, bliss(calmer) filled (shakti)) with everything and everyone. Is this on the mark with what you describe as beginning of Unity?
Of course 7 years before there was a big glimpse that happened for me where energy surged up my spine while just walking through the airport feeling a blissful love for God and everyone around me. The bliss energy surged up and out of my crown and everything turned to light (like a dimmer switch turned up), then the light and bliss and I went away. Nothing but everything beyond all concepts, etc….you know…that was my shift into witness, etc…but was that the glimpse into Brahman? It appeared as if nothing was beyond it.
But now the “nothing is really happening” is here, but so is the happening as the observer, observed, , experience, and experienced. I do feel as all these things…and also, that there is sooooo much more to be perceptionally unblocked.
Funny how every shift lands me back in kindergarten so it seems…but these are interesting experiences.
Thanks again for your time and reading this and all your replies. Really grateful. 🙂
Yes, the hum can be experienced several ways – like a high pitch similar to tinnitus, a low rumble that vibrates the body if felt bodily, and as Pashyanti or the classic Aum.
If they’re talking ground state, that’s roughly the same thing.
The kundalini process I talk about elsewhere. See for example:
https://davidya.ca/2013/05/21/understanding-shakti-in-awakening-part-1/
It varies but generally, awakening happens at the crown, then Unity at the gut during a later descent. There can certainly be an inner sense of oneness with awakening but Unity is with the world, after the distinction between inner and outer falls away. You can check the Key Posts tab above for the Unity section.
There isn’t one way for this to happen. I sometimes use puberty as an example. Same thing everyone goes through but a wide range of ways it’s experienced.
Brahman can’t really be known until consciousness is fully known. That’s because it’s without content and the dynamics of consciousness. Kind of like first samadhi experiences can be a blank spot before we recognize what’s there.
(laughs) Yep – kindergarten anew.
Great. Thanks…I have felt in last year and half chakra openings, etc, and cosmic experiences and feel movement on what appears outside inside of me in blissfull movement. I feel things shifted from being outside to experiencing them inside. So I get what you say as the line of separation falls away. I had this open more significantly after experiencing going through a tunnel and th towards a ball of light where what looked like Shiva (arms and all) told me he was me and my name was Ishwara and then I surrendered into him and went through him and through what appeared as past life and time and space. Do you have a feeling to what that was? Thanks…I will read you Kundalini article.
David, could you elaborate on this please.
For example, when consciousness wishes to look upon divinity, it will meet with resistance.
Hi Gayanee
This points to one of the little surprises. As universal consciousness is a just a shadow of pure divinity, it is insufficient to look upon it.
But when we shift from being conscious to being divinity, then divinity can look upon itself.
(this doesn’t mean personal divinity. It means opening more fully to what we’ve always been)
“We merge into our universality that we arose from, if that is the path taken.”
David,
Is our universality eternal or does it collaps into pure divinity at the end what Vedas called ‘creation cycles’?
Alas, it is not so simple. It also depends on how you choose to look.
Pure divinity doesn’t create anything. It remains pure so nothing arises from it nor falls back into it. It is within Brahman which is beyond all creation.
Also tricky – eternal means all time but it is beyond timeless.
There are several cycles within cycles. The cycles of Yugas, the cycles of Manu, and the the cycles of Brahma. The last would be the cycles of our universe.
According to commonly calculated versions, the cycles of our creation are in the hundreds of Quintillion years (about 10 to the 21st). So while not “eternal”, we can basically consider them so.
Add in the fact that creation repeats itself (if we understand that it’s created in the first place) and you cross into the eternal threshold.
I discuss this last point here:
https://davidya.ca/2012/01/02/why-does-creation-repeat/
Who we are at essence does not die, not because it is eternal but because it was never born. 🙂
now you know why I used to call the blog In2Deep. 🙂
Haha yes!! Totally!
Also, when you say pure divinity is within Brahman…. From what I can gather that Brahman is always a person right? Brahman is when induviality and universality (which I thought where the individuality emerged from) merge. And if the totality knowing itself through ‘a liitle me’ is Brhaman, the pure divinity is always within the Human? :/
hmm – we’re getting into the mind trying to figure it out, which it can’t. You’re applying the understanding of one stage to another.
Brahman the stage is always a human knowing Brahman. But what is called Brahman is there to be known. It is simply not known until it is. (laughs) This is how I use the word here. Others may use it more loosely.
Brahman is not known by a “little me”. It is known by a human who already knows themselves as cosmic. We might say it is known by a cosmic human just as divinity requires itself.
We discover our universality in Self Realization. When we know our individuality is universal varies some but is typically in Unity. The terms are not relevant in Brahman.
Brahman is pure nonduality meaning there is no qualities that describe it because there is no polarity. It is uncreated.
Then we get into paradoxes. We discover Brahman as beyond consciousness but this is also beyond omnipresence. In other words, Brahman is more than omnipresrent. It is right here. It is the space in which all this arises but is not the space itself but rather something beyond it because the space is uncreated.
Pure divinity is more so. I’m working on an article on how divinity is within us but that may just confuse more. 🙂
Probably! But go ahead and confuse us away! One day it will all make sense 🙂
Keep in mind this article is about “pure divinity”, not divinity in form. Manifest divinity carries many of the qualities of pure divinity but in a certain “package.” We might call that a reflection or representation but as it is in form it is not the totality of it.
However, form does make it more accessible for us other reflections. 🙂
I know and actually see my self as everything and as pure divinity (I use the word divine) beyond existence and non existence. Which I thought was the devatha value.
But when you talked about us merging int ‘our universality we arose from’ it was a bit confusing. I felt this universality you were talking about was what was seen here as divine and since I am/all is already what I recognized as that which never dies nor was born I was wondering about this merge that happens with universality (or what I saw as the divine).
Gosh I hope you understand all that! :p
When I say “pure divinity” here, I mean divinity beyond all constraints or qualifications. Thus, without form. We can certainly have tastes of pure divinity, like in waking or makara. But this is not the totality of it.
One example I can use. Lorne Hoff differentiates Mother Divine and Divine Mother. Mother Divine is the creator, the divine feminine who can be experienced in form or formless. As such, she is the divine you would merge back into, back into the folds of love.
Divine Mother is pure divinity, beyond all creation. With no creation, there is no birth and thus nothing to merge back to.
We emerge from creation which is universal. So we would merge back into our source. This is very much divine. It’s just not “pure divinity” in the sense I’m using it here.
Brahman is beyond creation and pure divinity beyond that. They are uncreated and are thus not what we merge back into.
And yet, at the same time, pure divinity is the true source. I’ll be writing more on that.
Even my brain is struggling to find words here. (laughs)
Another way to say pure divinity is ParaDivinity, to mix languages.
The simple answer – we merge back into the divine we where created from.
ParaDivinty! I like that word. 🙂 thank you! Now it’s clear. This ParaDivinty sounds holier than Holy :). Thanks for writing about it. Even though my mind scrambles to comprehend it and get exhausted I love reading about it. Feels very divine to the body to read. Haha.
Isn’t Consciousness beyond creation, space and time and as well, and thus, not what we merge back into either? Or are you saying we merge back with the dynamics of Consciousness that is within creation, space and time? Hence your reference to Mother Divine.
Consciousness is beyond these things but can be considered the source of them. In that sense, it is the source from which we arise and to which we return.
However, as I discovered later, consciousness is a reflector. It is not the driver of creation. We could say it’s the container into which all arises, driven by flows of Divinity.
Pure Divinity is beyond the dynamics of consciousness. It is uncreated and the source of the source. We can’t say we merge back into it because we didn’t emerge from it. From that perspective, we are it and have never left. But this isn’t known until we are it.
Broadly, the way I use the term Mother Divine is as the Divine manifest in a form we can interact with. Similar to Jesus, Krishna, and so forth. Divine Mother is the source of the source, uncaused and uncreated.
That makes sense. Thanks, David!
We don’t merge back into Para-Brahman?
Hi David
No – we merge back into what we arose from. Once we go beyond the dynamics of consciousness, nothing is created so there is nothing to die either.
This doesn’t mean we’re separate from ParaBrahman. Only that we never came out of it so there’s nothing to merge back with.
It is only from a perspective post-creation that we’re born and thus die, emerge and thus reemerge.
This is all about perspective. The rules of one stage don’t work for other stages. Just like classical physics doesn’t work on the quantum mechanical level and vice versa.
Yea, when you said “merge” I automatically thought of death and that’s not what you are talking about here. My bad.
It makes sense now.
Thanks
Actually, that was a reference to one option at death.
But yeah, the word can also be used as similar to become or realize we are. And the answers would be similar.
The Death of a Yogi post goes into that.