Transpersonal Journal

[Anderz]

I think the truth is known in human knowledge but that it's spread out, almost as if the true information has been deliberately compartmentalized. And actually, that would be sensical from a personal perspective because it's a stage where we need to be tricked basically.

One example is that I found a term in philosophy, I don't remember the name, it was some fancy term, which says that only what exists now is real. So for example Donald Trump is real but George Washington isn't real. In my opinion that's almost a correct view! My view is that the past is real yet all the past is only information in the now, so for example George Washington is real but he only exists now, not in some past separate from the now.

At the personal stage we cling to the past and almost live in the past. At the transpersonal stage the past is recognized as being only form in the now.

[Anderz]

If the nondual context is absolute, then what about impermanence? The answer is that in the nondual context impermanence is permanence. Again, it can sound crazy from a rational perspective but it's rational! It's just that one has to take a leap beyond concepts while at the same time using concepts.

A simpler way of looking at it is that from the nondual context it's possible to take a step down into the context of change, time and forms, let's call it the relative context. And within the relative context there is impermanence without permanence on the level of form.

Interestingly the Platonic forms are beyond the relative context. For example 2+2 = 4 can be seen as a Platonic form and a timeless unchangeable truth. It's a bit tricky. Notice that the text "2+2 = 4" is a concept that points to the Platonic form it represents. We can also use for example binary notation to represent the same Platonic form: "10+10 = 100".

Quote

"The theory of Forms or theory of Ideas[1][2][3] is a philosophical theory, concept, or world-view, attributed to Plato, that the physical world is not as real or true as timeless, absolute, unchangeable ideas.[4] According to this theory, ideas in this sense, often capitalized and translated as "Ideas" or "Forms",[5] are the non-physical essences of all things, of which objects and matter in the physical world are merely imitations." - Wikipedia

 

[Anderz]

At the personal stage of development we are trapped in the relative context. And the transpersonal stage is simply about taking a step beyond the relative context into the nondual context.

But isn't that just theoretical speculations? Yes, I'm still at the personal stage so I'm conjuring up ideas about the transpersonal stage. However if there is truth to the ideas, then one's actual experience will start to reflect that. So it's a form of testing and exploring possibilities.

[Anderz]

When I claim that it may be possible to transcend even physical death isn't that precisely the kind of crystallized belief that's a sign of the personal stage of development? Yes! But notice that the same applies to the usual belief that physical death is inevitable. That too is a crystallized belief at the personal stage of development.

The transpersonal stage is beyond beliefs since beliefs are conceptual constructs. I still find it useful to come up with a counter-belief to the usual belief in inevitable physical death. If people who are enlightened still cling to the belief in inevitable physical death their spiritual enlightenment might be real but they are then still stuck in the crystallized ego at the personal stage of development.

[Anderz]

In this short clip Deepak Chopra makes what I found to be a good explanation of the formless being that is missing in the personal stage and experienced at the transpersonal stage.

 

[Anderz]

A simple practice I discovered for getting a sense of the difference between the personal self and the transpersonal Self is to first notice one's thoughts. And the next step is to notice that the thoughts are only a part of one's whole experience, which includes other things through sense perceptions and feelings. And the third step is to recognize that the Self is both the thoughts and also the other experiences; the Self is the whole experience.

One's total experience, even at the personal stage of development, includes both thoughts and the other sensations through the five senses and feelings. And notice that the total experience is a seamless whole. Even consciousness is a part of the experience, even though it's what is making the experience possible. The Self is all of that wholeness.

[Anderz]

The practice of noticing the Self as being one's whole experience is still at the personal stage an activity done with our crystallized ego. To reach the transpersonal stage of the Self requires that one's total experience becomes integrated into one whole indivisible sense of being.

And then the effort of the crystallized ego dissolves into wu wei. And the crystallized ego turns into the fluid ego of Tao (Dao).

Quote

"Wu wei means – in Chinese – non-doing or ‘doing nothing’. It sounds like a pleasant invitation to relax or worse, fall into laziness or apathy. Yet this concept is key to the noblest kind of action according to the philosophy of Daoism – and is at the heart of what it means to follow Dao or The Way. According to the central text of Daoism, the Dao De Jing: ‘The Way never acts yet nothing is left undone’." - theschooloflife.com

 

[Anderz]

Is there another stage beyond even the transpersonal stage? Yes, I believe so. Leo talked about that in his most recent video. And my idea is that the stage after the transpersonal stage is a collective consciousness.

And we can't cheat and skip directly to the collective consciousness stage from the personal stage since it's governed by the crystallized ego which is essentially the opposite of a collective consciousness.

[Anderz]

I noticed that I still have a tendency of clinging on to my desires. That's natural at the personal stage. At the transpersonal stage desires are converted into preferences. And Buddhism is correct that desire is what needs to be transcended (along with fears).

The problem with desires is that they are a part of the crystallized ego. There is value to desires and even to fears, but both desire and fear are limited perspectives based on a false belief in separation. So both fear and desire cause conflict.

My practice now is to recognize that my desires are valuable but that they need to dissolve and be transmuted into preferences. And my idea is that reality has infinite intelligence so it will automatically sort out the complicated process of making the transformation of desires into preferences happen.

Similarly fears need to dissolve and be replaced by fluid guidance. A simple analogy is that fears and desires are like training wheels for the self. They are necessary during the personal stage of development and need to be let go of when entering the transpersonal stage. 

[Anderz]

Money is a huge part of the crystallized ego. The heaviest tensions in the body are caused by money and those tensions slowly strangle the body so that it grows old, gets sick and then dies. And the love of money is those tensions, so it's the root of all evil. The reason for why money causes tensions is that society as a whole is a struggle against nature. And society has "outsourced" that struggle in the form of making people maintain the rigid structure of money as tensions in our bodies.

In the body of a person at the transpersonal stage the tensions have dissolved. And instead of a crystallized ego, holding money as tensions, the fluid ego is more like cash flow, financial liquidity and high velocity of money, current-cy. You cannot serve both God and money. Either you are at the personal stage of development, which means that you serve money with your tensions, or you are at the transpersonal stage and you "serve" God and since there isn't any separate person at that stage, there isn't any you as a "servant".

[Anderz]

Even animals in nature, their bodies don't grow old, get sick and die because of some wear and tear or something like that. Instead the average lifespan of a species is determined by the populations' survival strategies and fit into their environment. For example a species of mice can have an average lifespan of 3 years while a similar species, the naked mole rat, has an average life span of 30 years.

Animals can be seen as existing at a prepersonal stage of development. So if we humans were to regress back into a prepersonal stage there would still be aging of the body and death because of the struggle for survival. It's only at the transpersonal stage and higher that the struggle for survival is transcended. A personal at the transpersonal stage is one with the environment instead of a separate individual having to struggle against nature.

[Anderz]

Notice that the individual is not a separate island. The individual is a part of, and dependent on, society. So in a society at the personal stage of development a person at the transpersonal stage will still grow old and die. Therefore in order to truly have a transpersonal stage even society as a whole will need to be at that stage or at least support the transpersonal stage.

As a speculation, there may be a population on earth with humans having eternal lives. Richard Dolan has suggested that there exists what he calls a breakaway civilization on earth, a group of people with way more advanced knowledge and technology than in the public society. If that's true then it's likely that the breakaway civilization is already at the transpersonal stage or even higher.

 

[Anderz]

If a breakaway civilization really exists and is at the transpersonal stage or higher, then can't they just reveal themselves and help us cure cancer, remove poverty, clean up the environment and give us amazing knowledge and technology? No! Because we must reach the transpersonal stage through our own development. One cannot skip stages of development. It would be destructive for the breakaway civilization to help us other than in subtle and indirect ways.

And also, there is a huge value in how the public civilization is unique precisely because of all the struggles throughout history at the personal stage of development. The breakaway civilization is of a different kind and would destroy much of our uniqueness if it blended with our civilization prematurely. And nor can we as individuals develop into the transpersonal stage and then join the breakaway civilization since the public civilization needs to be preserved. So it's the public civilization that needs to develop into the transpersonal stage.

[Anderz]

The coronavirus crisis is a sign of the personal stage collectively in the world having reached a limit! The continuous economic growth in society has abruptly been halted. We have probably even had an economic reduction instead of growth during COVID-19.

Shunyamurti has an extreme view of how our current civilization will end. I don't think it will be anything as drastic as that if that's what he means. However there is some truth to it I think. Our current civilization has reached its limit for growth and development and will now start to morph into a new kind of civilization.

[Anderz]

I will take a look at Leo's new video. Toxic life, that's the personal stage! That's my take on it. Only at the transpersonal stage is the toxicity removed.

 

[Anderz]

The toxic life is a result of living from the crystallized ego. At the personal stage of development all actions are limited to narrow-self interest and survival of the self. Even at the higher stages within the personal stage there is toxicity because of this. I doesn't matter if we truly want to do good and work for the best of all, the limited perspective will always cause conflicts.

The only way to truly rise above conflict and friction and to be free from the toxic life is to move to the transpersonal stage. Only then does love blossom in fullness. I define love as wholeness in harmony and at the personal stage, because it's always in a state of conflict, only limited love is possible. I will listen to Shunyamurti again about the ego's problems with love.

At the transpersonal stage we still work for our self-interest, it's just that the self then is the Self which includes everybody and everything, including one's own interests. I found this other video where Shunyamurti talks about money and God.

 

[Anderz]

I discovered a way of improving the conscious suffering practice. Instead of focusing on confusion, negative emotions and physical pain I focus my attention into the tensions directly. Then suffering is only used as a guiding tool for discovering the tensions, and most tensions are hidden under numbness. Holding conscious attention on the tensions makes them start to dissolve.

I found a video where Rupert Spira talks about the purpose of suffering. It will be interesting to compare it to my method.

 

[Anderz]

Interestingly, thoughts are crystallized structures. The mind plays thoughts as mental objects to be observed in consciousness. There is of course also a lot of emotional content that is attached to the thoughts, nevertheless the thoughts themselves have a certain tension and rigidity to them.

I'm wondering if it's possible to also relax thoughts. Leo mentioned in his body awareness video that both the body and the mind need to be relaxed. I will experiment with trying to relax the thoughts themselves to see what happens.

[Anderz]

Now I noticed something even deeper. The crystallized ego is the I-thought. So even the sense of the personal self that is having thoughts is itself a crystallized thought construct. Maybe it's possible to relax even the I-thought!

Quote

"The ego is the I-thought. The true 'I' is the Self." - Ramana Maharshi 

 

[Anderz]

One risk with the internet is that it keeps the crystallized ego going and going. And look at the internet addiction with people glued to their smartphones all the time. I do believe that games for example serve a useful purpose of defining our future, and there is vast amounts of knowledge on the internet and that's amazing. And people connect across all over the world which also is a really good thing.

Yet the internet remains at the personal stage making the crystallized ego gather even more tensions. Even the spiritual information can become an ego trap. So I will take another break from the internet for a while.