Three pitfalls on the path

Published 29.03.2024 | By Йосиф

Three pitfalls on the path (bliss, clarity, emptiness)

Every person walking along the path of eternity, practicing concentration, encounters three traps that cannot be overcome unless there is boundless will, faith, knowledge and courage.

In fact, on the spiritual path, when we advance in spiritual practice, there are a lot of pitfalls, but the amateur or neophyte is not aware of it.

The difference between an experienced master and a practitioner is that he knows them all, he knows how to get around them. The difference between a beginner and a master is that he does not even suspect that they exist. Actually, it’s a difference in small subtleties, but it makes all the difference.

In Christianity, such traps are traditionally called charms, temptations of the devil, temptations. In the teachings of Anuttara Tantra they are called deviations, illusions. And if we embark on the path of discipleship, on the path of laya yoga, we should understand well all these illusory states, deviations, so that we can reach the path. And what is very important here is how involved we are in the teaching, in the line of transmission.

If we are involved in the teaching, line of transmission and work with texts, with the instructions of the master, then we have a great guarantee that we will go through these traps without any losses, or even if we stop somewhere, we will always be corrected. If we are not included in the teaching, in the line of transmission, and we do not know the texts that describe them, based on the experiences of holy siddhas, then, of course, there is no such guarantee, we have to break through the entrances again or cut through the rocks, not knowing that that these inputs already exist.

Why is it so important to avoid or be aware of these pitfalls? Because our ultimate goal is to achieve realization. It is as if a traveler wants to climb to the top of a mountain, but if he does not know where the cliffs and dangerous places are, he will never reach it. In the same way, our consciousness is a very complex winding path along the path of the ascent of the spirit. And there are a lot of subtle and slippery moments in it that a novice amateur is not even aware of. They open only when a person reaches this stage.

The teaching says that there are three traditional pitfalls that every person who practices deepening consciousness and the practice of contemplation experiences.

The first is the intoxication of bliss, which gives a person a false sense of perfection and the illusion of completing the path.

Intoxication with bliss means that in the process of spiritual practice, when a yogi begins to engage in meditation or contemplation, if he completely indulges in retreat practice or deeply contemplates, he will definitely begin to experience a state of euphoria – bliss. Sometimes such euphoria can last days and nights, so that even a person does not notice the change of day and night. Or he may feel intense bliss within his own body without even noticing that he has that body.

He experiences different types of bliss and ecstasy in the crown area, in the throat area, in the heart chakra area, in the navel area and in the genital area. Different types of bliss are classified according to the chakras or according to the condition of the channels. But the general state of the yogi is such that it is continuous immersion in joy, and then the yogi dissolves in this bliss and for him it seems the most attractive, it seems like what he has been looking for for a long time, and what he has achieved. He says: “as if I had come home.” He does not need anything, that is, he does not need a lot of food, external objects, or any external relationships. He is absolutely self-sufficient and his own meditative consciousness gives him great bliss.

It feels as if a person always wants to laugh or dance or cry with happiness. He can look at others, thinking: “how unfortunate they are, they have never experienced this, this does not happen in the human world.”

Such a person has reached a fairly high level of his meditation practice. At least reaching it is already a certain indicator.

However, if such a person does not know what comes next, he stops in spiritual practice. If he seems to hang at this level, then they say that his next life will be in the heaven of passions, he will be reborn as a divine spirit, the God of the world of passions.

The gods of the world of passion are immersed in pleasure, luxury and joy. However, it cannot be said that they have achieved awakening. This is just a certain step from which you need to push off and move on.

If the yogi does not push away and does not move on, but is simply absorbed in this state of bliss, he is likened to such a deity of passion during life. This is especially experienced by those who engage in concentration or the meditative practice of tranquility, those who experience the first and second dhyana. The state of the first and second dhyana is always intense bliss if the yogi is deeply immersed.

A yogi who has achieved the first and second dhyana may even be reborn as a god, an associate of Brahma, but this is not yet called a state of enlightenment, since there are two types of deities in heaven. The first ones are those whoo has acquired non-dual consciousness, and the second are those who simply remain in a meditative state. And they say about such gods that they are like an arrow that was shot, but someday it will definitely fall. They are like a kite that flies as long as there is an updraft, but someday it will have to land. In the same way, the state of dhyana and the experience of bliss that accompanies it is not liberated. Gods in such a state, those who are not enlightened, cannot progress further, freeze in their static dhyanas and are in such a blissful state, maybe a thousand years, maybe tens of thousands of years. Only highly developed souls can rise from this level.

What does a practitioner do when he experiences bliss? He doesn’t get attached to it. He abandons it and moves on. He remembers the main instruction: Do not be attached to anything, even when you come to a place where no attachment is possible, still be not attached.

This is the root principle of contemplative presence. When we check our consciousness, whether there are any attachments within our consciousness, to any subtle states, mental judgments, or to anything at all.

Second trap. Captivated by clarity that makes the student think that he has actually found something valuable, causing him to become absorbed in the sense of his wisdom and infallibility.

When the yogi successfully passes the bliss trap, a second trap arises called the “clarity trap.” Perhaps there will be a period of 15 – 20 years between these two traps, subject to intensive practice.

There are many saints in India who are called mad avadhuts or mastas. This is something like the equivalent of Christian holy fools. These are the ones many of whom have achieved real awakening. Many are simply considered to be God’s people, but their minds are absorbed in either bliss or clarity. Of course, they are not like ordinary people, but their mind cannot be said to be fully realized. If they are lucky enough to meet a teacher who is realized, they will be able to progress further. If not, then for the rest of their lives they will revel in their ecstatic states.

This happens to those who like to meditate and practice a lot, but do not really like to study, do not have theoretical training or the right instructions.

Clarity is the absorption of consciousness corresponding to the third and fourth dhyana. In the third and fourth dhyana, during meditation, the mind is very calm and serene, a state of oneness with the intuitive mind arises, and a subtle clarity arises, something like a consciousness like the gods. This feeling is “I know everything,” a feeling of one’s own infallibility.

And then a person is absorbed in his own clarity. Global, majestic ideas may arise in his mind; he likes to contemplate these ideas on a subtle level.

For example, I read that there were many ascetics, hermits, who, living in a cell for years, could write treatises on the turbulent rotation of dust particles and derive entire laws of the Universe from this when their minds were absorbed in something. These are different states of clarity.

How does a yogi overcome clarity? He overcomes it by not allowing the mind to become attached to it. He roughly thinks like this: “No subtle states will captivate me; nothing below non-duality will satisfy me.” And he continues to meditate.

The third trap is the deepest, which is difficult to overcome even for an experienced practitioner. This is the hypnotizing breath of the void abyss.

This trap tries to make a person weak-willed, devalues all his past experience, gives boundless apathy and indifference, equalizing everything. Whoever yields to her hypnotizing gaze goes into it, like into a black mouth, and remains there until the end of his life, losing the ability to go further along the path.

At the stage of the highest dhyanas, the sixth, seventh, eighth, a person experiences emptiness. The experience of emptiness radically changes his views on himself, on the world, on the spiritual path. Suddenly he begins to see: the whole world is nothing, the whole world is emptiness. And then he gets lost in this state of emptiness and he has to enter this unmanifested state of emptiness and completely disappear into it. He knows that everything other than this emptiness is lower, more illusory, more false.

But not knowing how to integrate emptiness, he chooses the only path available to him – entering the unmanifested state. And with this he makes his fatal mistake.

They say that there are still many saints who are in samadhi. I read that once Marpa in Tibet, thousands of years ago, with his disciples, while plowing a field, came across a naked man. Having dug it out, they saw that this man was sitting in the lotus position. They massaged the top of his head and gave him milk to drink, and brought him back to his senses. This man came to life and came to his senses. Then he asked what is the teaching on earth now and what is the time on earth now. When they answered him, he was very surprised and then disappeared.

There are many yogis whose minds are absorbed in the state of unmanifest emptinessness. What do the saints say in this case? They say that those who are caught up in material objects are like stupid cows. Those who are caught up in unmanifest emptiness are even worse.

They say that if you allow your mind to be absorbed by unmanifest emptiness, you will lose the essence of realization, which means that the practitioner integrates emptiness with form.

These tricky things may come in handy much later, but you need to be aware of them from the very beginning. If you are aware of them, you can interpret your mystical experiences in accordance with the teachings.

According to the teachings of the Siddhas, we are not interested in the unmanifested emptiness, not in the perfect nothingness, but in the emptiness that radiates. That emptiness that is endowed with energies. And it is precisely that process of realizing non-duality among the emanating energies of the primordial consciousness of emptiness that is the process of awakening. Simply put, it means being in an empty state at the moment when you see, hear, smell, touch, move, show dynamics and activity. In this case, complete implementation is achieved.

Often when we do a lot of meditation, we have different experiences. And the instructions of the saints in meditation and various experiences are basically this: Don’t get attached to any experiences. Even if you see Buddha, Christ, a dazzling light, or feel like God spinning thousands of universes on his fingertips, do not get attached. Don’t get identified. Observe this experience and allow it to self-liberate on a natural basis. Whatever emotions or visions you have, don’t let them confuse you.
Text “The Master’s Code”.

https://www.advayta.org/audiogallery/audiolektsii/660/

P.S. Note that the old tracts were given for a different time (for a bygone era). Now things change radically: falling into a trap is possible only when you follow the rules fanatically, that is, when you do not pay attention to intuition, to the soul. In fact, traps are staggering in the extreme. Yosif Yorgov