Samsaro and Nirvana

    As described in spiritual teachings of Orient, all cosmic realities can be classified as samsaric and nirvanic. Samsaric phenomena are all those that exist in the cosmos, whereas nirvanic is only the milieu, the physical field or the visual emptiness, in which phenomena can appear. That means that whatever has a form or limitation belongs to samsaro; nirvanic is only the cosmic void that provides for the phenomena milieu, in which existence is possible because phenomena must have dimensions.

    This concept of samsaro and nirvana is a physical [interpretation]. It involves factors natural, mechanical – in contrast to circumstances existing in the microcosm, mainly in the realm of biological phenomena; the latter blend more or less together, thus forming sort of compact units that are definitely living existences. They can be divided or categorized into qualities, of which many form bodies, and the other spirit, the sphere of psychical constituents.

    The phenomena of the psychical sphere can also be categorized; however, not statistically or in a laboratory but so that the subject itself distinguishes them. It is necessary to identify consciousness, mind, reason, sentiment, instinct, and manifestations of atavisms exactly as specifically manifested energies. It is the only way to recognize that these psychical constituents are a variation of influence of this energy and thus also of its manifestations. Consciousness isn’t from this standpoint nothing other than mind; mind in turn not other than reason; reason is in a certain manifestation sentiment; sentiment equals instinct, and instinct is again a manifestation of atavisms.

    The "biological phenomenon" human can be a being samsaric or nirvanic according to whether his/her mind and consciousness are filled with ideas of objects pertaining to the outer world or, conversely, with that emptiness, in which cosmic phenomena exist. Mental faculties or their further development in form of improving and expanding intellect, alone cannot make man nirvanic. Although from the psychological viewpoint, consciousness, reason, and mind are relatively very close to the nirvanic states and qualities, there are obstacles here to attaining nirvanic qualities as they can assume the role of the highest psychological qualities only in the secondary order. It is because they are used almost exclusively for orientation in the world of samsaric events and so they are modified into media [that are] potentially worldly. In order that the mental factors keep the character of nirvanic phenomena they must be freed from the role of mediators of relations for an individualized unity called human; to achieve this the [mental factors] need to be purified from remnants of perception [imprints the percepts leave in one’s mind] in the form of persisting sensory impressions, even though they can only be objects of memory. That is only possible provided the process of perceiving sensory phenomena [or impressions from them] is discontinued or cancelled by discipline of non-perceiving that has, of course, been perfected by psychical relation to the cosmic void. Only then will the inflow of samsaric perceptions into the consciousness be stopped. Ordinary people cannot observe this inflow as they are too much desensitized mentally or obscured by longing for those perceptions and by being satisfied if they last.

    Consciousness, reason, and mind can become nirvanic only when they are protected from usual worldly percepts and consequences of those. Then there will be no more obstacles to development of the subjective feeling of mental freedom, which in the final result is nirvana.

    Contents of consciousness, reason and mind are rooted as deep as in the sphere of feelings. Therefore the discipline providing the purification of consciousness, mind, and reason must affect primarily feelings. Generally regarded this discipline begins by cultivating and maintaining cheerful mood until [the moment when] cheerfulness becomes the permanent state mechanically influencing the consciousness of man. This cheerfulness does not allow arising of gloominess in [man’s] mind and consciousness. Man begins to be a true optimist; he does not have in mind fighting for things of sensual pleasure any more; instead, he is simply permanently happy.

    The tendencies to fight disappear from the mind of such a person. This already is the essence of personal happiness and purity of consciousness, reason and mind as is required by the teaching on attaining the nirvanic state. As we can see, the causes of it are psychological not external. People are gloomy or lean towards the harmony of relaxed condition exactly according to the inclinations of their spirit, which does not need to be in harmony with their outer, material, or social conditions.

    It seems that man cannot dictate his/her outer life story albeit it is claimed by fantasists that reckon themselves to be illumined rationalists. On the other hand, man can change his/her subjective life course by appropriate effort to alter the contents of his/her mind and consciousness; thus a pessimist can become an optimist; an optimist can assert himself/herself in the world easier exactly for his/her optimism. It does not apply to life story arising from social integration that is given by birth, upbringing, education and training to some profession. But man is not granted life course only in this area. Social integration is also of importance in his/her life; there are people popular and unpopular, which has its roots in their optimistic or sullen minds.

    Spiritual teachings of Orient aim always at assertion societal rather than social. A man who has come out of poverty can hardly seek to excel in the social sphere, except as one who cares only for his/her own welfare that he/she pursues in an utterly ruthless or unscrupulous way. On the other hand, he/she is able, by discipline consisting in changing the contents of his/her mind and consciousness, to improve his/her subjective condition at exactly this level and in this way to become pleasant and so create for himself/herself "better opportunities" in the social sphere.

    But this is an earthly aspect of this activity; it is not primary for Buddhists – they see their happiness much higher, where mind and consciousness are free from all traces of gloominess and materialistic ideas, which will lead especially to unfolding transcendental qualities in the mind and consciousness. By cultivating these man changes himself/herself from the very basis. His intellect develops, the contents of his/her mind and consciousness changes, his/her intellect gets sharper, and radiance in his/her heart intensifies, which lets him/her cast light into all problems and occurrences of life.

    So, this is the question of individuals being samsaric or nirvanic. What is decisive here are inner values of beings; they are samsaric if their minds gravitate towards phenomena of the outer world or, nirvanic if their consciousness canalizes all psychic energies into their hearts that are always identical with the emptiness of the universe. The body follows the tendency of mind and consciousness. In samsaric creatures all energies of being have a centrifugal (i.e. outward-moving) tendency. This is why even the bodily existence as a process is directed outwards, towards the world of material phenomena, which causes that the whole samsaric being is gradually emanated into the outer world and thus becomes merely a formation conditioned by fiction, which is afflicted by permanent instability of all constituents forming his/her existence.

    In nirvanic entities all energies of existence have a centripetal (i.e. inward-moving) tendency. Therefore the self of these beings finds in itself everything causing pleasure that it could search for somewhere outside. In this way they achieve contentment, which – as yogic scriptures have it – begins so that the nirvanic beings rejoice at their selves.

    Now it is obvious that samsaric and nirvanic qualities can be found on the one hand in the cosmos, on the other hand in cosmic phenomena. In the cosmos the phenomena are samsaric whereas the cosmic void is nirvanic. In the phenomena, samsaric are phenomena’s bodies while nirvanic their psychical faculties that are shaped by their contents. These contents, however, strengthen samsaric existence if they are used as mediators of imaginary relations of a self-aware individual to the surrounding world. Nirvanic existence, in turn, is strengthened if the contents concentrate on themselves. But not in the form of self-confidence of people [that are] vain about the price of their selves but, on the contrary, if they orient themselves on these psychical dispositions as on gradually developing, but in character nirvanic, phenomena.

    Psychic dispositions must also be discerned as constituents being in process because only in this manner they turn up to be identical with cosmic spheres that are always celestial spheres.

    Hells as cosmic spheres are identical with the phenomena of the region of feelings, instincts and atavisms. Exactly these dispositions are energy factors that make consciousness, reason and mind slaves of animal heat manifested in lusts. Who is burdened with lusts is always unhappy; lusts permanently grow and so they cannot be quenched. Only by exploring the sentimental, instinctive, and atavistic levels Brahmanism identified existence of spheres of experiencing as heavens and hells. Happy feelings correspond always to heavens of various levels, whereas feelings that are not happy are equivalent to "purgatories". Instincts and atavisms match always with hells; instincts with so-called red hells, atavisms with black [hells]. In the former, suffering and generally tribulations prevail; the latter are reigned by predominantly ignorance as the cause of all evil.

    Buddhism with its practice in observing the body found beside heavens and hells also spheres that from the standpoint of feelings are over-sensational [spheres]. Although reason and consciousness are spheres of actually exclusively celestial experiencing, yet this experiencing cannot be put among sentimental motions and excitements but maybe only among reactions to perceiving psychic radiance. This perception that nowhere stumbles on a shape that would be subjected to natural laws, especially to gravitation, provides awareness of freedom that grows in exact proportion to expanding space of ordinary awareness. At the highest degree the expansion of common awareness or self-awareness leads to identification of boundlessness as the absolute, in which no supports exist for existence and so where existence in our conception does not exist.

    Through the state of maximally extended ordinary awareness or self-awareness the state of salvation is realized as it is defined in Buddhism, viz. nirvana as the state of a fully realized Buddhist before his/her physical death and as the state of consciousness after his/her death, which is denoted as parinirvana. In this state, in parinirvana, there is no reference point or a precondition for self-awareness in the form of the origin of a new samsaric process as a series of reincarnations. This series is always beginning anew when the longing for living or being is not exhausted and when that longing is then reflected in wanting to live and to be. It is something that everybody easily succumbs to if he/she is not thoroughly fascinated by the emptiness of the absolute but only by outer phenomena and states of unique existence.

    However, in Buddhism the notion of nirvana and samsaro does not refer to the projected states of existence. All levels of existence, from the deepest infernal up to the highest celestial, are divided on the basis of states of consciousness, which man must necessarily get into if he/she strives to suppress the functions of mind, consciousness, feeling, incentives, and generally all mental movements. The objective effort to achieve peace of mind is always reflected in changes of the states of consciousness, the true nature of which cannot for a long time be recognized. After some time those states can be observed; discernment of them is only possible at the next stage of progress in this direction.

    By discerning the states of consciousness and feelings one gets to knowing of the spheres of experiencing, i.e. celestial, infernal, astral, etc. [spheres]. This is, however, no longer knowledge of those spheres as states purely sentimental, experiential and clearly crystallizing states of consciousness but as states objectified in the appropriate cosmic spheres as in firmly shaped worlds. Man at the level of this knowledge finds himself/herself on the margin of uncertainty as to what exactly are the individual life and the outer life that manifest itself in the cosmic space. Personality in the traditional conception cannot be found here. Individual and outer lives blend together so much that the boundary line between them can no longer be surely detected. This is also experience with the existence of general relativity of reality.

    An experienced yogi wants to touch with his consciousness his/her body as a physical formation and instead [he/she] will find himself/herself in indefinity where only by exerting mental effort he/she can distinguish peripheral factors of his/her being from the factors of the cosmic reality. This happens as far as on the border of always valid correlations between the constituents of the subject and the object which finally merge in one unit, whereas the subjects’ existence is enabled exclusively by adequate realizations of the idea "my" and "not-my".

    This is a manifestation of reality by the strongest standards, indeed. That "self" and "the world" merge in one so that personal views have no meaning and man as an individual can no longer distinguish himself/herself from the all-existence. And his mental and feeling states emerge in his/her perception as a process of literally rolling, continuous creation, the character of which is here samsaric and there nirvanic, according to what the phenomena of that creation absorb as their perceptional phenomena, values and qualities. And the yogi himself becomes in this moment a pilgrim through spheres with their specific contents that are reflected in perception and experiencing of the dwellers of those spheres.

    If someone becomes such a pilgrim, then his/her main psychic disposition is discrimination. His/her emotional component does not resonate in harmony with the states of the spheres through which he/she is just passing so that he/she is but perceiving them. With this he/she is bringing the discriminating component of the being to the cognition that feeling states as well as phenomena of his outer world are correlatives being manifested here as a process of personal experiencing and elsewhere as the world of outer, so-called objective, phenomena. And even states of consciousness will show they are other manifestation of existing objective spheres. Then it is easy to arrive at the knowledge of the buddhist " trilokyam", the three-world, the lowest aspect of which is actually the world of atavisms and instincts and at a higher degree the world of feelings. The higher aspect of feelings is impersonal and differentiated states of consciousness, the highest aspect of this three-world are states of so-called clear consciousness. These last-mentioned states can be differentiated only on the basis of remnants of ideas that the world left in him as objects cemented by impressions in the time of [his/her] ignorance.

    Those remnants can be cleared only by further purging of consciousness with the help of desired [deliberate] percepts of the absolute. When the emptiness finally gains control over the whole field of the personal consciousness, nothing differentiated can survive in consciousness – this is the way towards realization of the emptiness of consciousness, which is at the opposite side of the fullness [of consciousness] in the form of perceptions of phenomena. Then the pilgrim sees the creation process as rolling quanta of physical aggregates, as phenomena containing either nirvanic or samsaric contents – the samsaric contents as the celestial, earthly or infernal worlds, or actually as worlds of demonic nature.

    In that last, lowest region the pilgrim through the spheres of existence finds formations in the form of creatures that fully succumb to stimuli from tendencies of the creation process, through which they were created or, in other words, from the tendencies of the creation process. This process is affected by no mercifulness. We find cosmic phenomena being in the permanent pressure of gravitational influence that changes the structure of these phenomena from stellar nebulae to various solar systems. Their bodies, viz. suns and planets, are crushed by outer gravitation until they become cosmic dust again. This dust will assemble anew to create a basis for the formation of new solar systems. The same situation is in the formations of the lowest samsaric world, as the relations between them and their surroundings are crushed, until they finally disperse into biological substrata that are once again transformed into biological phenomena.

    Psychic factors as mental dispositions and faculties in the mentioned phenomena are actually in no relations to the cosmic void nor do they communicate with it. They serve them only for self-defence, especially in the form of escapes from unfavourable conditions. This is why the vitality of these biological phenomena [formations] is so low, primitive, and does not allow them any pleasure as is always possible only in connection with mental relaxation.

    At the second stage of this samsaric sphere there are formations that are propelled by more aggressive drives. These are naraka, hells, where there is no more such unconditional dullness and darkness predominating; intellect in the creatures or formations of this sphere gets manifested in higher aggressiveness of their instincts. That is why here the sense of touch is not applied so unconditionally as a mentally grasping ability, and consciousness manifests itself rather in the will to gain satisfaction of instinctive or even emotional passions. Thus these naraka are no more "black" but only "red" hells. The shine of intellect is in this sphere suppressed by the awareness of lusts. This might be psychologically assessed as an appropriate aspect of spiritual life; however, there is not enough space for the state of liberating awareness here.

    Immediately above this samsaric region is the sphere of human beings: phenomena or creatures existing on the boundary of life unreservedly yielding to impulses of animal vitality, and life, the conditions of which are favourable for unfolding of consciousness, a quality that belongs to transcendental rather than vital spheres. Therefore the human beings can exhibit life that is unconditionally samsaric or, to a certain degree, also nirvanic. Their reason and consciousness can, by excluding the contents of percepts of "created" things, develop within themselves qualities of the "super-created", i.e. various aspects of differentiating emptiness. It is a precondition for arising experiences of happiness springing from mental freedom that is always included within reason and consciousness as qualities of the created.

    However, there are also people who use consciousness and intellect purely for orientation in the sphere of things, i.e. phenomena of the external world. Due to this tendency they do not know the feeling of mental freedom but only questionable pleasures springing from satisfying individual and sensuous lusts. Because consciousness and reason (intellect) are sufficiently isolated from the material of their bodies and from instincts, they fall a victim to an assumption that they understand the questions of life, although they are interested in only gratifying their own passions. These people consider the "purification" of consciousness and reason, by means of volitionally eliminating percepts that inspire these beings to aggressiveness of instincts, for unreasonable and unnatural behaviour; they see it as life that has not hit its natural goal and purpose. They do not understand that this goal means only applying a principle of enjoying pleasures; it is actually no goal whatsoever but simply a result of life process that has not been directed by anything valuable that their wills would pinpoint for them. If they do understand it, then only as a philosophy that is hostile towards them. This is the reason why people cannot agree with each other on the "purpose of life and work".

    Now, we should not waste too much time talking about people. The states of consciousness above the human level, which result from the process of purification [of consciousness], can be graded further, albeit they already take place in the over-conscious sphere of the common human life. Who has left the condition of an "experiencer" and has become an observer, will find in states of his/her consciousness, that are being divided, the awareness of exhilarating mental relaxation that is evidently tinged with joyful feelings. Therefore this state, or this phase of spiritual development, is identified as the paradisiacal state. In the cosmological conception [it is identified] as contents of life experiencing or life conditions inherent to angelic beings; in the oriental interpretation as life conditions of devic world (deva-world) [devic: derived from the Sanskrit word deva – (usu. lower) god, godhead, deity]. However, as the feeling (experiencing) in that state is really intense, explorers in the area of spiritual states consider this level as insufficient and unsatisfactory. Thus they strive for excluding emotional incentives that intrude into consciousness, which in the next phase of the spiritual development leads to identification of states of consciousness, which are more purified from feelings. But also these states are attained by stages; feeling states that electrify the body are ceasing and, instead, states of bliss are arising.

    Blissful states differ from joyfulness the way that the former are internal flushes that are closer to ecstasy rather than to physical excitement, however subtle and practically non-bodily they might be. They are rather stirs of mind which incite to the flight to the endless space. During that flight all ties of consciousness with the outer world disappear so what remains or prevails is only a state of freedom filling consciousness and mind with bliss.

    Here we reach the threshold of divine worlds, specifically the Brahmic ones. Brahma is a state that is permanently creative, which at the level of the human consciousness is manifested as happiness resulting from expanding vitality and optimism. In the spiritual-developing process the one going through the Brahmic sphere and Brahmic states perseveres in the extrovert radiation of vitality in the condition of uninterrupted optimism; any crisis burdening the man stops. At the same time the outer world does not touch him/her subjectively, except in the form of further stimuli to the creative optimism that at the human level can manifest itself only by cheerful "to want and to be".

    But in the spiritual-developing process based on descending through the layers of the being to the centre [of those layers] the progress does not end by attaining the Brahmic states. These states mean only achieving the peak of development of consciousness that so far has been remaining conceptually on the boundary between definite or constrained perception and so-called limitless perception. Therefore it is sufficient to suppress perception of what tends to appear as phenomena or states of concrete phenomena and concepts, and consciousness will immediately come over to the spheres of phenomena indefinite, unbounded, supersensory, transcendental, into the over-brahmic world.

    It is only in this world where cheerfulness vanishes, which, though gently yet identifiably makes the physical beingness of the one who has achieved that state vibrate, and what begins to emerge are states of consciousness which vary from each other in their range, extent, and quality, the extent of which is more or less good. In the same way as the one who has achieved those stages on the boundary of the phenomena differentiated and non-differentiated dwells in the state ofbrahma, then the one who transcends that state will perceive nothing but the non-differentiated, the limitless space in the outer interpretation; boundlessness of consciousness in the psychological interpretation; or infinite void at a lower stage during the further progress; or he/she finds himself/herself on the boundary of possible perception or non-perception at a higher stage of this advancement. And two realities constantly mingle here – namely experiencing all those states (i) as psychical states or (ii) as a reflection of outer realities affecting in this way consciousness of the one who advances to the highest possible state of the natural psychic development.

    In no case can this progression be pictured as a "journey through the spheres". It is primarily evolution belonging to the area of possible development (expansion) of states of consciousness. Therefore this whole "journey" is actually a methodical purification of consciousness from the contents that the outer world delivers it because [consciousness] is oriented to this world.

    Once man realizes this fact, he/she regards then the progressing purification of consciousness to be work carried out on his/her own person. And if he/she resists the temptation to take the emerging visions and states for mere stages on the path of this purification, he/she will never lapse into a false opinion to consider himself/herself a "small human" who is suddenly going through various spheres of the outer world. He/she considers himself/herself one who goes through transformations of the states and qualities of his/her consciousness. Then one day it will dawn upon him/her that those states and qualities are never only subjective processes. What’s more, they are also reflections of the outer spheres on which he/she takes no stand as an experiencer because he/she deliberately proceeds to the absolute purification of consciousness.

    In this way he/she will exclude the outer world from the set of phenomena affecting his/her person and will stay with the successive purification of his/her own consciousness, from which he/she will eventually profit the Emptiness. The Emptiness which is absence of any contents of consciousness and thus an evident experience of the absolute release of oneself from the opposites that we call our own being on the one side and the outer world on the other.

    That exactly is the freedom that is not granted but gained by the correct effort, by purifying consciousness, emptying oneself from all psychical factors that are still existing and still subsiding percepts. What is disappearing is belief or disbelief in realities of the visible and invisible world, accepting or non-accepting some truths, the conviction that there are or are not some worlds that are other than so-called ours. Any possibility of being influenced by percepts of whatever outer world is vanishing because behind everything that man knows there is personal experience that there are a subject and objects that are identical or different only on the basis of opinions that man accepted but not created by himself/herself, for he/she lives like an animal, viz., exclusively through reflexes of psychic aptitudes exactly distinguishing between "I" and "it".

    There is, of course, a way to achieve this supreme personal experience that is preceded by cognition of all existing spheres of life – here as worlds of being, there as states of consciousness. It is not a path leading vertically up from the human state to cognition of realities and to achieving experiences, nor is it a way going forward, but [a way] inwards, through all layers of being, downwards to its centre. And man passes this way by his/her awareness. He/she begins from the outermost periphery, from the empirical realities, one component of which is his/her body as a phenomenon identifiable by senses.

    From the standpoint of psychology, as is obvious from the hitherto presented description, one begins with observing one’s body. It is not an uneasy method. However, it requires a strict discipline that shall prevent flightiness of mind. But people are not disciplined; as I have found out in those I have guided on the mystical path – and they have been many because I have been carrying out this task for more that 45 years.

    Although I have acted very carefully when introducing every individual to this path of knowledge of nature, themselves and the world, it has been an exception rather than a rule if I succeeded in bringing somebody to the real observation of his/her body. Although those people were trying to observe their bodies, yet within a short time they would abandon this activity to follow some other idea spontaneously emerging in them; they would elaborate this thought into theories and dreams that could never contribute to their advancement on the path to knowledge. However, there have been also other: the ones who have critically paid attention if what I was advising corresponded to what they have themselves approved as the right pursuit.

    How could they, under those circumstances, have achieved knowledge and absolutely correct discrimination of either states of their consciousness or cosmic reflections of those states, namely divine and non-divine, infernal or over-divine, spheres?

    Maybe it is because people feel offended by such a simple method, the goal of which is the absolute knowledge and liberation, namely that observation of one’s body and, besides, its distal parts (legs). Such people think they are worthy of a "nobler" path, a path consisting of speculations, out of which they will eventually get a core of genuine knowledge in that they will find something that no one other has found yet.

    But the mystical path is not a path of quarrels and disputes for truths or untruths. Knowledge is exclusively a fruit of observing that is free of any speculations. Observing one’s body, the distal parts, legs, is to be an activity to which nothing else is affiliated. Only in this way this observing turns into discerning concentration, the intensity of which grows successively stronger until it eventually begins to go through all levels of existence into their real centre.

    A novice on this path and in this practical teaching cannot take the observation of the body otherwise than observing the body’s surface that he/she perceives with his/her eyesight. Only increasing intensity of that observation, which will gradually become introvert concentration of all mental energies, will help overcome the barrier of the surface perceived by the eyes; this is the beginning of the psychic interiorization process. And it is here that everybody comes across mystical experiences that are absolutely valid because they happen always and without exception in everyone who traverses this way of knowledge.

    The fact that some people follow the mystical path their way does not mean anything. "Their specific way of work" implies in this case that the man "shoots arrows of his/her focusing mind" into various layers of his/her being in a random and unmethodical way, whereby he/she causes diverse reactions and perceptions that usually change the order of cognition of himself/herself and the world. One person arrives in this way first at unfolding of intense feelings of apparently over-sensual sort, another comes to various findings that have their origin in speculations, and some other again unfolds visions, the value of which is truly questionable.

    Observing the body, specifically the legs, is certainly an uninteresting activity. One cannot achieve anything through it, except for more and more perfect observing. At a certain degree that observation will penetrate into the area [layer] under the skin; here begins yoga oflaya. However, the immediate experience with this observation of the body can in non-experienced disciples arouse fear of mental stupefaction that might emerge from work of such kind. In fact nothing similar can happen. The observation can become more profound and more focused but if one cares about permanently noting sensual percepts of the outer world, then focusing on the body and monitoring the sensual perception of outer phenomena is sufficient to ensure further advancement in registering all that happens during this practice.

    It is necessary that the progress towards knowledge has character of integral effort that is based exactly on combining the observation of the body with thoroughly watchful paying attention to sensual percepts of phenomena of the outer world. For that matter, it is only in this way that everybody can advance so that he/she will register, I should say, every single step on the path of his/her knowledge. Only if one loses control over wakefulness, he/she is leaving the path of knowledge and entering the path of experiencing, in this conception experiencing that is very intense and will absorb every possibility of control over one’s advancement.

    The combination of observation of the body and the control over watchfulness resembles the advancement of the left and the right leg. It can never happen that man, under these circumstances, sinks into groping or wandering of mind somewhere in the area of questionable, though sometimes pleasant ideas. One must never forget that the path to knowledge is safe only provided that man who set out on this journey slides never, not for a moment, into experiencing instead of sticking to the method of observing.

    Who will pierce by intensity of concentration, which has been brought about by observing the body, under the skin, so to say, he/she will arrive at auditory effects, through which nature or even the universe announce their creative activity. During this penetration one can hear sounds of the "cosmic wind" manifested as a whistle and gradually as a collapsing system of the Created, which is usually as deafening as dreadful.

    Here the tendency of the penetration of the mind is usually not changing so more lower layers are beginning to be heard. This will bring about peace of mind as an opposite to or a consequence of previous mental movements. Concentration is thus becoming more profound and perfect.

    Nevertheless, let us come back to the beginning of this practice.

    It is very interesting to see that hardly someone is able to bring the observation of his/her body up to the mentioned result. More probably he/she will confuse this observing of the body with concentration of mind, by means of which the unfolding of ideas and speculations is over and over again kindled. And these ideas and speculations will prevent him/her from getting experience from advancing and deepening concentration induced by the body observation. Escape from observing the body then becomes for such people a custom that will no more allow them to bring their minds to composure. One speculates "all around" about nothing or apparent something. In reality it is wandering of mind, though of other sort than which we see in people thinking automatically and continuously about phenomena of the world of outer things.