Buddhi Yoga
(lecture)
Vladimir Antonov
Translated from Russian
by Mikhail Nikolenko
© Antonov V.V., 2010.
At special places of power like this one, it is very easy to understand what is buddhi by having experienced oneself as a buddhi.
Let me remind you about the meaning of this term. There is the word jeeva — and there is the word buddhi (boddhi). What is the difference between them? These both words can be translated as soul, individual consciousness. Yet jeeva is a soul in the usual meaning of this word. Plants, animals, people have jeevas. While buddhi is a soul developed with the help of special methods of spiritual work and which is much larger in size than the material human body.
There is also the term buddhi-yoga. It is a system of meditative methods which allow developing oneself as a buddhi.
And who is Buddha? After all, these words have the same origin. Buddha is a Buddhi developed to full Perfection.
How can one advance to the state of Buddha with the help of the methods of buddhi yoga? And what does buddhi consist of? How can one grow it?
The basis of buddhi is the developed spiritual heart. It begins to grow — either in favorable conditions of usual sattvic life or with the help of special auxiliary methods of spiritual work — from the chest chakra anahata, and then it becomes much larger than the size of the material body.
Everything valuable that was accumulated by us in other structures of the organism (that is outside the anahata chakra) also becomes connected with the growing spiritual heart and infuses into it; for this purpose one uses special methods of buddhi yoga. The buddhi formed in this way is called also dharmakaya — body of the Path.
It is important to remember that man is not a material body but a soul, consciousness. The body is just a temporary container of man intended for going though the current stage of man’s evolutionary development. So we can be either small souls — or great souls aspiring to Perfection.
The next large stage of growth of buddhi is achievement of subtlety of the same level as the subtlety of the Primordial Consciousness (the Creator, God-the-Father) and strengthening (crystallization) of oneself in it. Such Persons are called Mahatmas (Mahaatmas) or Buddhisattvas (Boddhisattvas). The Primordial Consciousness can be seen as the most subtle Clear Light; the qualities of Mahatmas-Buddhisatvas are the same. This is why They are called also the Enlightened, that is consisting of the Divine Light.
But in order to become a Buddha, such a person has to learn also to enter the state of Mergence with the Primordial Consciousness, infusing into It and dissolving oneself in It. This state is called Nirvana — the state when the lower self of man is destroyed, “burned away”.
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Therefore, the most important directions of buddhi yoga are: a) growth of the spiritual heart, b) refinement of the consciousness, and c) mastering of the methods of Mergence with the Primordial Consciousness.
Mastering of these three directions of work in buddhi yoga ensures the ability to enter the state of Nirvana.
Unfortunately, some people misunderstand the term Nirvana. For example, there is an opinion that Nirvana implies full and ultimate disappearance of the individuality. No, this is wrong. It is only the lower self dwelling in the head chakra ajna that disappears. Instead of it, one gains the Higher Self — the Self of the Primordial Consciousness. And such a Divine Individuality can manifest Itself in the world of incarnated souls again — as a Divine Teacher, a Representative of the Primordial Consciousness.
The above statement is confirmed most brightly by our conversations with the Founder of Buddhism, Gautama Buddha, Who did not disappear from existence: He can be seen; one can embrace Him, communicate with Him, merge with Him. Our conversations with Him, by the way, are published in the book Classics of Spiritual Philosophy and the Present.
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What are conditions and limitations of our advancement along the Path to Perfection? And are there other — smaller — stages on it?
We discussed this in detail in many of our books (in Ecopsychology, first of all), in articles, in films-lectures. Therefore, now I am going just to briefly mention them.
First, a person who wants to walk the spiritual Path has to learn and to accept the theory of spiritual development including its basis — the ethics of relationships with other people, with all living beings, with God.
It is also no less important to know about the Goal of our spiritual efforts; this Goal is God in the aspect of the Primordial Consciousness, the Creator. Therefore one has to understand what is God and where one can find Him. If there is no such an understanding, then it results in what we can see in many sects and esoteric cycles: walking without advancing forward; Apostle Philip in His Gospel likened this to the activity of a donkey rotating millstone — the donkey walked in cycles for the whole day but remained at the same place…
It is also important to understand that many people, even very good ones, are not capable of comprehending what we discuss here: they are young souls, too young in the evolutionary aspect. It is too earlier for them to become engaged in serious spiritual work. Let them grow now in usual worldly activity; let them aspire to enrich themselves with various useful kinds of knowledge, help other people in everything good, strive to avoid making even little harm to others. Also let them develop the spiritual heart; it cannot cause any harm to them; on the contrary, they can benefit much from it!
The next stage suitable not for everyone is the use of the methods of raja yoga for cleansing and developing the main energy structures of the organism. Thanks to these efforts one can, among other things, get rid of many chronic diseases. But the most important thing there is that without achieving bioenergetical purity in the body one cannot advance in the task of the refinement of the consciousness. (Quantitative growth of the consciousness, which lives in coarse emotional states, is the Path in the direction opposite from the Creator: to hell).
And then the successful spiritual seeker gains the ability to begin quick advancement along the Straight Path toward the Goal. This Path, generally speaking, consists in qualitative and quantitative development of oneself as a spiritual heart — up to, in particular, Mergence with the Heart of the Absolute, which is the Primordial Consciousness.
And let us try to see that throughout the entire history of humankind on the Earth — God tried to explain to people this very thing. This was taught by the Divine Teachers of Atlantis, by Pythagoras, by Huang Di, by Lao Tse, by Krishna, by Gautama Buddha, by Jesus Christ, by Babaji, by Sathya Sai Baba… Yet people invented their own variations of religion, created various sects where the Teachings of God were perverted to the opposite sometimes…
Let us study and realize what God suggests to us!
Recommended literature
- Antonov V.V. (ed.) — Spiritual Heart: Path to the Creator (Poems-Meditations and Poems-Revelations). “New Atlanteans”, Saint Petersburg, 2007 (in Russian).
- Antonov V.V. — How God Can Be Cognized. Autobiography of a Scientist Who Studied God. “New Atlanteans”, 2009.
- Antonov V.V. (ed.) — How God Can Be Cognized. Book 2. Autobiographies of God’s Disciples. “New Atlanteans”, 2008 (in Russian).
- Antonov V.V. (ed.) — Spiritual Work with Children. “New Atlanteans”, 2008.
- Antonov V.V. (ed.) — Classics of Spiritual Philosophy and the Present. “New Atlanteans”, 2008.
- Antonov V.V. — Ecopsychology. “New Atlanteans”, 2008.
- Antonov V.V. (ed.) — Forest Lectures on the Highest Yoga. “New Atlanteans”, 2008.
- Antonov V.V. — The Bhagavad Gita with Commentaries. “New Atlanteans”, 2008.
- Antonov V.V. — Tao Te Ching. “New Atlanteans”, 2008.
- Antonov V.V. — Blessed Are Pure in Heart! “New Atlanteans”, 2008.
- Antonov V.V. — What Is Truth? “New Atlanteans”, 2008.
- Zubkova A.B. — Dialogues with Pythagoras. “New Atlanteans”, 2008 (in Russian).
