04-01 General review of differentiating consciousness
When I differentiate a book and a table, blue and yellow, it means that my capability to differentiate – differentiating consciousness (“DC”) is revealed. Thoughts, wishes, emotions, senses and DC make a whole complex of perceptions that I call a “personality”.
DC can be mechanical or enlightened. Mechanical DC (“mDC”) eventuates due to a pattern, which was accepted mechanically, or when there are no EPs. For example, when we are looking at a tree, we say that the branches and the trunk are components of a tree, i.e. we differentiate complexes of perceptions as separate groups, connected together as an integral unity of the “tree”. A car that is parked near the tree is not differentiated as part of the tree, as when we are looking at any tree, nearly always we see branches and leaves, but only sometimes we see a car. Such differentiation is not the mDC, because it is based on observations and experience. But nobody thinks of considering a feeling of beauty to be a part of a tree, though any time, when I am looking at any tree, I have a splash of the feeling for the beauty (of course if I have an EP at that moment), and every such splash of beauty has an inimitable undertone, like inimitable is any leave and any branch. The reason why we do not differentiate such a great number of undertones for the feeling of beauty, is in the fact that we experience this feeling on rare occasions, these undertones are simply not revealed. The reason why even a person that experiences many undertones of the feeling of beauty, also does not consider this feeling of beauty to be a part of a tree, is an example of a mDC- we are used to recognizing this feeling of beauty to be “the part of us”.
MDC gives way to eDC in the process of eradicating the NEs, concepts, mechanical wishes, “feeling not well” (i.e. negative senses), and in the process of EPs experiencing. Thus the eDC develops, and:
а) unreasoned differentiations are revised and eradicated. For example, recognition of the breasts as «looking decently”, if the nipples are covered, and «looking indecently”, if they are revealed, is eradicated as a result of clarity that this differentiation has no reason and as a result of a happy wish to eradicate this differentiation.
b) differentiations, based on the experience, remain, but they do not dominate as much as to block the way for the alternative differentiation. For example, I can “see a tree” as a complex of branches and leaves, and also I can “see it” as a complex of shadows and interspaces with the sky appearing through the canopy.
c) it eventuates in differentiation of a growing number of EP undertones.
d) it eventuates in differentiation of new EPs.
e) it eventuates in differentiation of new stable and interconnected complexes of perceptions that can be called “new worlds”. They include the world of lucid dreams, out-of-body perceptions and so on. As soon as it eventuates in the new world, there appears a state that can be called “I have become this or that”. Simultaneous differentiation of a few worlds is possible, i.e. at one and the same moment you can be a personality (which means you have differentiation of 5 groups of perceptions (skandhas) that form this personality), as well as another creature in another world (i.e. at this moment there is a differentiation of other complexes of perceptions).
A very efficient practice of decreasing mDC and development of eDC is the practice of recurring perception of differentiation (“RP of differentiation”). For example, in a dark room you rotate a few times around your axis, and as a result do not comprehend where you are orientated at in the room – either it is a window or a wall. At first you generate the certainty that opposite is a window, then a wall, and this happens many times. Or your partner pretends he picks something up from the floor and he has it in his grasp, then – opposite. The task is to form the strongest possible certainty. “Certainty” is a definite awareness of DC, i.e. when DC is anchored and we call this state “certainty”.
A typical example of mDC is a subdivision into “the subject of perception”, “the object of perception” and “the process of perception”. Making such a subdivision is good for our everyday activities, but it is also worthwhile to be aware (from the point of view of EPs achievement and the development of eDC), that this is only one of the techniques of differentiating, whereas there is only a perception called “I see a hill” and there is no perception “a hill”, “I”, “see”. Thus, the practice of substituting the certainty in the existence of “I”, “see” and “a hill” with the certainty that there is one and the only perception, which we call “I see a hill”, is especially efficient for the development of eDC.
One more efficient practice is the practice “not-rivers, not-mountains”. You are walking along a street and instead of the word “tree” you say “not-a-tree”, instead of “dog” – “not-a-dog”, and nothing else, just a substituting with the words with the prefix “not”, you are not making a special effort trying to feel something unusual. This technique does not bring tiredness, but eventuates in new degrees of freedom in eDC and EPs.
Analogically, there is a practice of parallel awareness of obvious things. You are looking at a mountain and say “a mountain – is a lot of rocks”. No doubt, it is right, and it is easy to be proved. When you think of somebody you feel very loyal and affectionate to, remember his face and say “his face is “a piece of meat”, which is also absolutely true. In the case with a person you are certain that he is not only a piece of meat, but in the case of a mountain there is no such certainty due to the mDC. This kind of practicing opens a chance of differentiating new perceptions, previously blocked by mDC, and now these perceptions can be differentiated providing there are other perceptions relating to the complex “mountain”.
One more efficient practice is a consecutive elimination of a mechanical inner dialogue (“ID”). The less EPs and the more NEs are experienced, the more difficult it is to get rid of the ID.
Fears that freedom from stereotypical awareness of DC will bring to total disorientation, are entirely groundless, as well as the fears that if you are free from NEs, you will become senseless, all is vice versa.
Development of the eDC (i.e. liberating DC from stereotypical awareness) resonates with all EPs, and it gives us more grounds to call such DC as enlightened.
A happy wish to differentiate perceptions and their precise awareness (without imagining, adding or ignoring some details) I call sincerity. NEs, concepts and mechanical wishes are incompatible with sincerity.
I will accentuate the following quality from many that characterize eDC: if you adhere to your confidence, that appear in the conditions, when ordinary differentiation has no grounds for such confidence, you will obtain very favourable results. For example, you might want to know what this or that man feels at the moment and to experience confidence (of special quality that is so different from conceptual, mechanical confidence) regarding what he feels. Later it is possible to ask that person about his perceptions at that moment and compare his reply with your assumption (obviously the person, that does not practice, will not be able to describe his perceptions sincerely, he definitely will add or ignore something, or even will want to record his perceptions – ordinary people always cheat themselves). You can ask yourself a question what is the best way of acting to achieve the best result and experience confidence regarding worthiness of certain actions and check it. It is possible to experience confidence regarding the perceptions of a person you do not know, but he was mentioned about. This quality of DC can be trained, tuned, purified from mutilations caused by distresses. Only perfect freedom from NEs allows this quality to be developed.
Every person has a possibility to experience a brief moment of freedom from mDC. This is a brief gap between the moments when you are still dozing and then dreaming starts. This moment I will call “merging”. When you are in the process of getting to sleep, you can differentiate various external noises – like the sound of an ocean outside your window, or the sound of water from a tap, or somebody is talking outside. You differentiate one thing, another or a third, i.e. these perceptions have their borders. If you thoroughly observe the process of getting to sleep, then at a certain moment, when you are nearly asleep, you can be aware of an amazing phenomenon: the borders between the perceptions have disappeared, and there is no sound of the ocean or water from the tap, there are no people’s voices – there is only a unified perception, the net of mDC is thrown away, mDC is stopped, and when you finally fall asleep, already new perceptions appear, that belong to the world of dreams.
The moments of merging are too brief – maximum only a few seconds, besides, it may be only once in a hundred that the process of falling asleep is not abrupt, but gradual and you can feel this moment. This is why it is good to apply the practice of multiple falling asleep – you start sleeping, and your partner awakens you in a few moments after you are asleep (the moment of being asleep can be identified due to certain change of breathing). As a result you can remember the “taste” of freedom from mDC after experiencing all these seconds of merging in one evening.
04-02 The practice of forgetfulness. Generating enlightened images
Any person at any moment knows exactly what his name is, what his parents names are, that he was studying in his school, what the names of his friends are, he is of this age, he is in that place, his tasks are these, those people have those expectations from him and so on. This is a huge, chaotic bundle of information, which generates an obtrusive, paranoid inner dialogue, feeding the NB that forms a mechanical picture of the world. In all this only a tiny part of this information is interesting or desirable. I want to only remember about my happy wishes, current investigations and so on, but why remember at this moment – what town I live in, what country I am in, how old I am and what are the names of my neighbours? This information will be useful when it is needed, but why remember about it all the time?
Remember how you wanted once to remember something, but could not, and try to generate this state. Ask yourself “what is your name” and try to experience this state of impossibility to remember. As usual, it seems to be impossible, but you will achieve consistent results, if you train. Make it a formal practice – generate forgetfulness of your name every 15 seconds during a selected period and make records of the degree of your forgetfulness against a scale from 1 to 10.
The practice of forgetfulness will improve your memory and transform it into a flexible tool from an automatic collector of various rubbish.
The acquired skills can be used in the practice of generating enlightened images (“EI”). Images that resonate EPs, can be integrated in a picture and used as a powerful enlightening factor, e.g.:
*) a remote small Russian city – one of thousands of ordinary cities. Warm dry autumn, peaceful park, fallen leaves and dusty road with benches alongside. Old people are sitting on some of them, young mothers with little children and prams sometimes come. I am sitting there too, pretending to be an old man of 70, my clothes, way of walking, manners – everything says that I am a half-blind and a deaf dotard. From time to time children are running around, but for them I am like a dead tree, a piece of furniture, they will not even remember that I was sitting there. I continuously experience ecstatic EPs, find new ones, and my practice takes me into an endless journey. Nobody cares about me, nobody is expecting anything from me and nobody notices me. The world has spat me out, I am senile, half dead, not needed and not interesting to anybody. NO need to impress anybody, as only one impression has already been created – half-dead old man. I can practice without any distractions, be in my practice entirely and travel in my unimaginable experiences.
This picture is associated for me with bright determination, aspiration, triumph and the joy of a fight. Whereas if I “remember” that I am a young guy, travelling in the Himalayas, then EPs weaken, no matter how strange it seems to be.
The more precise the EI, the easier it is to keep it and make an associative link with EPs. The memory of an ordinary person and his capability to imagine are unbelievably weak, and it will become a serious tool in your practice if you start developing it. The following are a few training exercises that will develop your memory and imagination:
1) the game “Balda” 5×5 in your mind (game for two in a square of 5×5, write in the center a word of 5 letters; the participants add one more letter, each in turn, so that a maximum long word is received, and it can be read any way except diagonally. The one, who has the longest total of letters, wins).
2) the game “Balda” 3×3 in your mind
3) chess game
4) chess game in mind
5) remembering objects in detail
If I imagine a lawn without any preparation, the image will be blurry, an imagined bush will be a shapeless green spot, nothing else. This is why I find a real bush, thoroughly investigate it, remember in detail, and after that the entire picture will be more stable and its resonance with EPs will intensify.
To anchor such a complicated object like a bush in memory, it is necessary to analyze it – divide it into conditional components and designate them.
The description of a fir-bush that I use as an EI starts as following:
The first branch: goes up vertically; its size is a bit more than a palm of a hand; it has a form of an eye, there is a “tongue” in the centre and it is turned to the left; “a feather” is above the tongue and projects back out.
The second branch: starts from the same spot as the first one; goes up to the right at the angle of 30 degrees; has the form of a narrow eye; two “ears” at the bottom, the left “ear” goes behind the first branch and overlaps in such a way that it seems to be a part of the first branch; the tip of the ear and the other two tips, that form a triangle, are dry; above is a four layer tongue with a feather; at the bottom there are small drops of resin; three leaves to the left, right under the tongue, form a staircase; a leaf to the right, opposite the middle step, is curved back a little bit.
And so on. As a whole there are 40 branches. Besides, I divide the bush into blocks and make their general description – rough at first, and when I remember it, I can come back and make it more detailed. Every term has a definite meaning, e.g. “a feather” is a leave that sticks out at right angle to the level, where the rest of the leaves are; “an ear” is a leaf, which is more than twice as long as the leaves next to it; “a tongue” – top leaves of the branch that are altogether on a level perpendicularly to the beginning of the branch, and so on. When I remember the bush, I “scan” it consecutively from the top to the bottom, telling my description (my assistant can check against the text – if I remember everything), for this I do not memorize the description, I just “scan” the bush in my imagination, as if I direct the light of a torch on it. While I remember the bush time after time, I notice, that “the range of vision” expands, the beam of the torch becomes wider, and I see the whole branch at a time, not just parts. Then I “see” two branches at a time and so on. As a result, when I imagine the bush in my EI, the picture is very strong, especially if I like this bush, and this is what I recommend to use for your EI, what is resonating EPs.
Then I choose a bench and describe and remember it in the same way, and so on. At first this work is a very slow process, but the skill to grasp and generate the images improves.
In a lucid dream I can generate a perception of a field and be there, this enables me to jump in an EP easily and acquire an interesting experience.
04-03 Structure of an inner dialogue (id)
An inner dialogue (id) can be roughly divided into two layers:
1) loud inner dialogue (lid) consists of words, said fully and silently, such thoughts can last from a few seconds to an indefinitely long period, up to an obsession. The content of a lid is, as a rule, clear to a person, i.e. if asked, “what are you thinking about”, he will be able to reply.
2) a blind inner dialogue (bid) consists of fragments of words and images, lasting approximately from 1/30th of a second to one third of a second, and it is not easy to catch what they are on about.
If somebody wants to think of something and starts thinking about it, then this is what we call a “desirable id” (did). All other types of id we call parasite or mechanical (mid).
The clearer the thought, the more distinct or loud it is by definition.
04-04 Ceasing an id
All NEs that are experienced by people, as well as continuous NB, feed the id constantly and make it permanent, consistent and tiring. It is impossible to stop it, even to make a break for a moment is not possible – it is so stable and continuous. A person that has no experience in differentiating his perceptions, sometimes can think that he manages to stop thinking – but he simply does not notice the consistent layers of the bid – like a person that experiences a NB for years, does not notice it and believes he has no NB.
The only technique that will enable to achieve breaks in the id – is to achieve a continuous EB. It is not too difficult. If you are persistent in getting rid of the NEs, remembering yourself in EPs and achieve dozens of EPs splashes during the day, then gradually EB eventuates and strengthens. When the EB is continuous and intensive, mid decreases.
Ceasing the id is one of the topics of a choice for esoteric people, i.e. those people that do not want to change anything in themselves, to stop having NEs, to experience EPs, to achieve clarity and sincerity, but want to impress other people with different esoteric wordage and to feel very important. The fact that somebody has NEs, is practically impossible to hide, especially if the communication is lasting. How can an ordinary person check if somebody has an id? No way to check – and this is why esoteric followers love this topic. In the meantime I can say definitely and it is 100% right that while a person has not learnt to eradicate perfectly (that is for less than half a second) the NEs, while he has not learnt to experience a continuous and intensive EB and dozens of EPs splashes a day, even short breaks in his id absolutely are not possible – and not only in bid, but in lid as well. It is possible, due to some hardly imaginable tricks, to stop only the loudest thoughts for a second, but nothing more.
04-05 Interpretation of electromagnetic waves (knowledge of quantum mechanics not needed)
Imagine that something is flashing before your eyes all the time. There is so much of this “something”, and it is continually, and you cannot see anything else around you, you cannot differentiate an actual image. Dots, wands, polygons of different colours are flashing before you, thus making a chaotic visual trash. Tiny fragments of your visual perception of a room that you are in, try to get through this flow of trash but cannot make a picture of your room. Such a person would be practically blind even though his eyesight is normal and could perceive the surrounding world well, if not this parasite flashing. If he did not know about the existing of this room, he would not even guess it existed, if he relied on only the interpretation of his visual perceptions.
We can make a similar example relating to sounds – if you continuously hear a chaotic loud noise, you will not differentiate a melody or sensible speech – there will be only squawking, hissing, grunting and other acoustic garbage.
I remind that our eyes perceive not pictures, but electromagnetic waves. Reflected from the objects the light hits our eyes and then something mysterious happens – a perception of an image emerges. We do not know how it happens, and hardly ever we will know about it, because the more science explores and knows, the more it expands the sphere of experience, the greater the distance of contact with the sphere of unknown is. This image demonstrates exactly what happens in science. Science is what lets us understand how much we do not know.
Of course, around us there are so many mysterious phenomena. How does this combination of water, minerals, air and sunlight create a green creature from a small grain, this creature being so infinitely different from the light, air and minerals? How can the funny fluffy face, which is not at all green, be created out air and grass? How does a wish to raise your hand up make the muscles change synchronically and the hand does go up? How do the soundwaves that reach our ears form words; how do the electromagnetic waves form the images – this is also the same mystery.
Definitely we can say the following: (a) electromagnetic waves reach our eyes, (b) as a result it eventuates in images. Here let us introduce the term “interpretation” regarding this phenomenon to designate all those mysterious processes that transfer the electromagnetic waves into images in our eyes.
Now imagine that as a result of experiencing a lasting and intensive enlightened background, the mid has weakened and the breaks started developing. Will it eventuate in generating some thoughts of different types – not did, not mid – but thoughts of some different origin? Before I give an answer to this question, I suggest that you make an excursus and read the following paragraph.
04-06 Facts from Bodhi’s life
My communication with snouts for several years unavoidably revealed for them a number of peculiarities in my behaviour. As these peculiarities were too extraordinary, as a rule the snouts simply pushed out and “forgot” their observations – a very common mechanism that allows you to keep the picture of the world unchanged. To block this mechanism, they started to keep diaries and now I am going to use a fragmentation from them.
(Please note: all the book is structured in such a way, that everything, that has been described in it, can be proved by your own experience. It is impossible for a non-snout to check it, but it is not required – this paragraph is just an illustration for the following one. As well as the next paragraph does not confirm anything, but has a few questions and it is possible to find answers to them only on the basis of your own experience).
1. Bodh asked A – if she was experiencing anticipation. She said she was not. She started generating it, imagining climbing Cho Oyu, and then diving. Bodh was writing something in his note-pad at the time. A told, that she generated anticipation with the intensity of 3 – 4. Bodh asked what enlightened factors she used for that. A told: “climbing Cho Oyu and diving training”. Bodh showed his note-pad – and there was written in it 1. diving, 2. Cho Oyu. He wrote not one and not three enlightened factors, but exactly two. And exactly those that A used.
2. The railway station at Varanasi. A loudspeaker made an announcement about the train arrival in Hindi, then in English 3 times at a stretch. B opened her mouth to say that they were repeating it for the fourth time and at this moment Bodh said: “at our stations they do not repeat it so many times”. In India they always make multiple announcements at the stations – but Bodh did not comment on this fact any more, neither before this case, nor after.
3. There are four of us in a carriage compartment. We have three buns, two of them are in the pack and Bodh is eating the third. We are all talking about something, B is thinking of something. Suddenly Bodh stops eating, turns to her and says: “I do not agree”. B said that at that moment she thought “whether to ask Bodh for a bun”.
4. G was writing a scientific-wise article. She thought that an expression “of various kinds” will be cool and started writing these words. At that moment Bodh said: “you can use such words as “kind of”…
5. At the restaurant they served soup and pizza for Bodh simultaneously. He said that he had a soup with a bun. At the same time D. thought that actually pizza is just toasted bread with cheese and tomatoes. Before she never had any thoughts of the kind and believed that pizza was some special dish.
6. We were talking, the four of us. When Bodh started talking, he was interrupted, when he started talking for the second time, he was interrupted again. He stopped talking and made a funny face. Everybody laughed. He resumed talking and very soon stopped with the same funny face. E said that she already forgot about those interruptions and was going again to break and ask Bodh a question.
7. G asked Sita (a Nepalese) if she was writing fast in Nepali. Sita answered yes and G thought if it’s possible to hire her as an interpreter to Nepali. She decided that Sita was not fit for it, as her English was not good enough. At that moment Bodh said: “But her English is not good”.
8. The five of us were sitting in the Internet – Z, E, Bodh, K and L. K and L finished earlier, went outside and started discussing which restaurant it is better to go to (usually they had their meals at the hotel, but that evening they decided to go to a restaurant). K said she wanted to go to “Monsoon”, but she was not going even to offer it, because Bodh would not go there (he said a few times that he was there and did not like it). L laughed and said she also wanted to go to “Monsoon” and also decided not to offer it as Bodh would not agree. Bodh could not hear that, as he was sitting in the far corner of the internet–café and they were talking outside. Later, when everybody left café, Z picked some restaurant, and they went there. On the way Bodh turned to K and L and said: “Well, if you want, we can go to Monsoon”.
9. M was reading a book, Bodh lay on the grass at some distance from her. She started asking him “How is the word “extension” translated into Russian?” At the moment, when she was pronouncing the syllable “-te-“, Bodh interrupted her and said the word in Russian. It is impossible to react so quickly – it is necessary to know which word M was going to say.
After that we conducted a few experiments. At first one of us said some simple English word and the other tried to translate it instantly. We discovered that it took half a second to think after the first person said a word and only after that it was possible to give a reply. We even simplified the experiment – one was saying a word in Russian, and the other was supposed to repeat it as soon as possible – again in Russian. In any case some part of a second was required after the word was pronounced. In no circumstances was it possible to interrupt half a word.
10. Tea was served for Bodh and N. O also wanted tea and decided to ask Bodh to give her his tea. It was strange, because in that restaurant tea was served very quickly, and the waiters responded also quickly as soon as asked – she could order tea too. She was surprised herself that such a wish emerged – to ask for Bodh’s tea. While she was thinking of asking, Bodh said: “I can share my tea”. She was so surprised that she asked N and P if they asked for tea and maybe Bodh replied to one of them or he just said that. Bodh’s response was also unusual, because we do not save on tea and it’s unlikely that he decided to have tea later, and this cup he wanted to give away was still hot. More than likely he would not have it, just would order another cup. And his phrase was not an offer like “does anybody want to have my tea?” His phrase was exactly a response to a question if he would give away his tea.
11. We were bargaining about a big, rare and expensive gemstone. The shop assistant hesitated, then ran somewhere into the stall, took a note-book and returned to the counter. She ripped out one sheet, looked at it, put aside, then ripped out the second. Bodh said: “it’s going to be the luck of the draw”. R laughed as it looked like a joke, the very assumption that a shop assistant was going to make a decision relating to a price of 600 dollars on the basis of the luck of a draw, seemed to be absurd. Meanwhile the shop assistant tore the sheet into small pieces and wrote different amounts on them, after that she pulled out a random piece and announced the price that was written on the piece. Neither before, nor later the shop assistants behaved so strange in our presence, this is why it was impossible to guess about it on the basis of previous experience. More than that, the shop assistants quite frequently take paper (or a calculator), and not the luck of a draw, of course, but to display the torturous process of calculating possible discounts.
12. We were sitting in a Japanese restaurant. S was thinking about the coincidence that took place yesterday, when Bodh said he could share his tea. That very moment Bodh told, as if a joke, the same phrase: “I can share my tea”.
13. T was often skeptical about such coincidences, but after the case with the luck of a draw her attitude changed. They were sitting in a restaurant at night, she started talking about it, and Bodh said: “actually it can also be explained”. T was certain that this exact coincidence cannot be explained logically. She started thinking how it can be explained. Silence was lasting for about three or four minutes. T thought: “does it mean that Bodh knows what people think?” At that moment Bodh said: “you do agree, it cannot be explained that I know what people are thinking”.
14. Once U was meeting Bodh at the airport – she saw him approaching the queue to customs and was ready to wait for him to pass through. After the customs he would have to cross a clearing to come to where she was. He approached the queue and disappeared behind it and she lost view of him, but IN TWO SECONDS he emerged just in front of her. At first she did not even understand that it was him, because it was impossible – not having waited in the queue, not having passed the customs, and not having crossed the clearing that she was watching and he did not cross. Of course an extravagant assumption can be made that something happened to U that had never happened before, like that she fainted and so on, but there was also F with her.
15. There was a similar case with H at the railway station in India: she was sitting near a person who was sitting next to Bodh. There was a distance of about three meters from Bodh to the exit door of the hall. Bodh was sitting and reading a book. The glass door was leading from the hall to the waiting room for foreigners. At a certain moment H wanted to ask Bodh his opinion of one of the tourists, and she was looking at Bodh while formulating her question. At that moment a tourist got up and went somewhere. H turned away from Bodh just for a second, and even started her phrase: “have a look at that tourist…”, but he disappeared. During that time he could not get up, approach the door, walk out through the door and go so far and not be seen through the glass door.
16. Z was trying to remember the boys she had been bonking with. She said, there were three or four boys that she could not remember. Bodh said – this is strange that she could not remember them. She agreed – yes, there were three more boys, but she did not understand who. After a pause Bodh asked: “What about a fair-haired boy? The one that quite often had stormy PEs and lived in an old house near the highway”? (Bodh told a few more characteristics of the boy, which were forgotten now. Z made an effort and suddenly remembered that there was such a boy – exactly fair-haired, and he lived in an old house and so on. She visited him a few times and wanted to have a bonk with him, but most likely it did not happen. Bodh said “this is why I was not sure”.
17. At the restaurant Ch was thinking about her behavour in a subway and agreed with Bodh that she experienced an uncontrollable flash of PEs and consequent dullness. She wanted to tell everybody that she was falling into a condition of PEs craziness after manifesting an initiative of something. She nearly started talking, but at that moment Bodh looked at her and said: “Ch, this is not interesting”.
18. Three years ago Sh lived with Bodh for about a month. What was surprising to her during that month, was – as soon as she was making an effort of a certain direction or had a wish to get rid of some distress, Bodh immediately was telling her the most effective way of eradicating exactly the distress she was thinking about or how to apply a certain discovery. He was explaining the reason of the discovery, and it was precisely the one she had made some half or an hour ago and did not mention it to anybody. It happened 30 or 40 times.
19. Sch started eradicating boredom. She was in a small room, thinking why she felt so bored and what made it attractive for her. Then a reluctance of feeling bored appeared, she approached a poster with mountains, made an effort to eradicate boredom, then was distracted with something else and did not eradicate her boredom. Thinking of boredom, she went to the kitchen. Without looking at her Bodh asked her – does it mean that this state of “life’s not interesting” you are not going to eradicate?
20. Y decided that all these coincidences represent a certain mystic process – for all of us, including Bodh. Bodh told her: “OK, there will be no more coincidences”. Y replied that never – was very indefinite and she wanted to watch them for a week. Bodh: “OK, one week”. That week really had no coincidences (usually there were 3 – 4 strange events or coincidences a day).
21. Yy wanted to record Bodh’s voice on the Dictaphone. Bodh didn’t want it. But Yy still started recording secretly, and his CPC with an integral Dictaphone broke down. For two days Yy could not fix his CPC (even though he was a professional), after that he jokingly asked Bodh to forgive him. In the same joking manner Bodh answered that he forgave Yy and the CPC turned on. What is more surprising, the CPC never broke down after that and is still working. This happened during our trip to the Himalayas and this fact had about 15 witnesses.
22. For a whole week Yi was thinking about her wish to write a book “Bodh in the eyes of snouts”. She did not mention it to anybody, but her happy wish was about 5 – 6. At the end of the week she went to meet Bodh at the airport. As soon as he saw her, Bodh said:”you will write a book “Bodh and I”, and the book will be true, though dull”.
23. A opened a window to the balcony, looked at the backpacks and closed it. She wanted to get rid of mundane nonsensical moments, this is why she closed the door not mechanically, while experiencing chaotic distractions, but concentrated to make sure that the door is closed tight. When she returned from behind the curtain, Bodh asked her: “Are you sure you closed the door?”
– Yes, I am
– Is the door closed, you sure?
– Yes, I am sure (interesting, why is he asking, there is even no breeze to make an assumption that the door is not closed).
– You sure?
A, while looking at Bodh (she had the certainty of 10, that the balcony was closed, and just wanted to show that to Bodh), pulled the handle – and the door opened.
24. U’s description: “I was standing at the bus stop waiting for Bodh. I was first in the queue and wanted Bodh to be here sooner. This is why I often turned to the right to see him coming among other people. Sometimes I turned to the left – just for a couple of seconds to see if the bus is approaching and mechanically took a view of three people that were standing to the left of the queue. Again I looked to the right and saw people walking, and again looked to the left. At that moment Bodh gave me a slight slap on my shoulder from behind. It was impossible to imagine that for those two seconds, when I was looking to the left, he had run all that distance, I could have a view of, from the right (and I did had a good view of all people walking from the furthest kiosks from the road) so fast, and even more strange he did not even look like breathing hard from running.”
25. Ya’s description: “I told Bodh to wake me up at night. He did J. I remember that the first moments I had a very clear conscience. NO sleepiness AT ALL. I never ever have such a state, even close, after waking up. In the mornings I usually wake up and my sleepiness is about 5 – 6, at night – 0. Not always I manage to get up straight away. But in this case, when I opened my eyes, the clarity was 10, and I distinctly remember Bodh’s silhouette in the door, with the light behind him. Some unknown crystal clarity of my perception – even during the day I do not experience it. I told him something and he left. The clarity decreased to 6, then again increased to10, then again sleepiness and I got up with difficulty. I do not remember exactly how he woke me up – whether he called me or said something. But I remember exactly that he did not touch me, as he was in the doorway, at a distance of a few meters from me.”
26. A’s description: “We were playing chess with Bodh. After my first move I passed thinking. Bodh asked: “well, are you thinking over your 16th move?” I laughed and said there was such an enormous number of variants, that I could not even imagine that number. He replied nobody was considering all possible variants, only real ways of combinations development were to be considered. I told even a computer would not foretell that fantastic number of variants, real as well. Then after a short pause Bodh said: “your 16th move will be a knight.” Then after another short pause he added: “from the black square to the white”. Nobody paid much attention to it, as the absurdity of such prognosis was obvious.
When we were playing for quite some time, Bodh suddenly said: “look, this was the 16th move and it was the knight from the black square to the white”. We counted the moves, but I did not manage to recollect all the game, and Bodh did not help me with it, so I am still not sure if it was 16th move exactly, or 15th.
While playing, Bodh hardly was looking at the chess board – he simultaneously was talking with two snouts, was also reading some mail and so on, and briefly looked at the board only after my move and quickly made his – he is skillful enough to win playing like this. It is hardly possible to make an assumption that due to some unimaginable effort of his mind he could bring the game to such a development that I would have to make my 16th move exactly as he said.
Snout’s attention was attracted to this strange event, they looked a bit confused, but nevertheless decided to dismiss it with a thought like “well, yeah, a bit strange, but still it is a coincidence”. Apparently Bodh understood that and before the next game he thought for a couple of seconds and said that my 9th move will be with a bishop. I started counting the moves, thinking not to develop moves with my bishops – I had this playful interest “to rub his nose in it”. In general, I decided just not to use the bishop for the 9th move – it was not difficult, there were always lots of variants in the game. The game was absolutely quiet, there were no forced moves and we both developed the situation as we wanted. My 8th move was with a bishop, and Bodh said: “you see – your move number 9”. I disagreed: “no, it’s number 8! I was counting!” Bodh offered to take another set of chess and repeat the game, counting all our moves. And the bloody move was number 9. I do not understand how I could make that mistake.
27. B’s description: “yesterday we were watching a movie. There was a big beautiful building – an office of a mega corporation. I thought: “snouts office of the future”, and Bodh said the same phrase”.
28. V’s description: “Bodh, G, D and I were travelling in a double-deck bus. Downstairs there were bus seats and above the seats there were double bunks which could accommodate two people to sleep. Bodh and I were on such a bunk. Two sides of the bunk had dividing walls, one side had a window and the fourth had no wall, only a curtain that was facing the aisle.
We were sitting face to face, reclining against dividing walls. At a certain moment Bodh moved and faced the window, his back to the curtain. I did not pay attention, as sometimes we changed our position (though never this way, because it was not comfortable, there was nothing to recline against).
A few minutes later I noticed that Bodh was sitting in the usual way, his back still relaxed, not too straight or stoop-shouldered. When I noticed that, I asked myself – why did I pay attention that he was sitting naturally, not strained? Why these thoughts in my inner dialogue? And this moment I understood that he was sitting leaning back as if resting on a usual wall. But there was no wall! There was only a curtain that was waving with the breeze, and only an aisle behind that curtain!
My eyes appeared on stalks in the direct sense of these words, and my chin dropped. The shock was so strong, that I thought I could faint. Bodh was laughing at me, joking, but due to my shock I could not utter a word or move. When I could talk, I said “You must have toughened your abdominal muscles”. Bodh offered me to touch. I did – the abdominal muscles, back, thighs – ALL muscles were absolutely relaxed. I sat on him, leaned on him, pushed him, but he was sitting in the same relaxed position, and he did not lean back any further as it would be if he had tightened his muscles. He would not be able to keep the balance in spite of my pushes without leaning back at least a centimeter further. He was joking, then he lifted his legs up and rested them on the window, so, if he did keep the balance due to his muscles, now with his legs up, he would definitely have crashed on the bloody floor in the aisle.
I was sitting on him for about an hour. And all this time I was in a state of shock (I could only move and talk), just like when I first discovered him “levitating”. And all this time Bodh was quiet, his voice was not trembling from tension, his breath was even, he was talking to me, joking and playfighting.
A few times he leaned forward to playfight with my paws, and then leaned back. His movements were as if he was reclining against that wall, at first smooth and then soft push from an unseen wall.”
29. E’s description: “Bodh and Zh and I got to the metro station and moved to the exit. Zh and I took the stairway, but Bodh went to the moving escalator. Zh ran up the stairway, I followed her and even pulled Bodh’s sleeve, who was slowly moving with a queue of people to step on the escalator. I was running up the stairway and looked for Bodh to see if he was on the escalator, running or standing there. A thought flashed about a situation in the airport, that Zh told us about, when Bodh transflopped in front of her nose, missing a queue and customs. Bodh was not seen anywhere. I ran to the top of the stairway and stopped near the escalators to see him. Again he was not there. I waited for a few minutes, thinking that the queue to the escalator was a bit longer than I thought. I approached the turnstile, looked there and at the exit. Bodh was nowhere. I left the metro and saw he was standing with Zh! I could not miss him as ALL THE TIME I specially was looking for him. He did not ride that bloody escalator, he just transflopped and appeared at the exit with Zh.”
Addition from Zh: “when I ran up the stairway, I looked back to see E and especially Bodh (as I knew about his capability to transflop). I saw that E followed me, but Bodh was not there. A thought flashed that Bodh will stand on the escalator, not walk up. I was looking at the escalator for half a minute, the distance between E and I became less and Bodh would not have a chance to pass unnoticed if he was between us. I turned and went to the exit. When I was outside I looked back and saw Bodh following me. I could not believe it was possible, but Bodh was there. I looked for E – where was she? Maybe she also learnt to transflop? At that moment she appeared from the metro and saw us”.
30. E’s description: “same day in the den – I took a salad from the fridge and checked the table to find a fork. There were not many things there – couple of knives and teaspoons. I attentively examined the table twice and went to get a fork. Bodh had his tea and was chewing his sarnie not far from the table. I returned to the table. Bodh made couple of steps and also came to the table. I grabbed some salad, started chewing it and then I saw that there is one more fork Bodh used it for his portion of salad. My eyes appeared on stalks – I specially examined the table twice and there was no fork, Bodh did not go anywhere. But he had the bloody fork.
I cannot explain these two situations with my improper attention, because I was attentive, examined and checked. In these situations I was attentive not 90%, not even 99%, but all 200%.”
31. Bodh and Z were wallowing in the bath. Z leaned with her back on Bodh, sitting between his thighs. She had a chaotic inner dialogue and remembered a joke about a man, who had a hangover. He came to the shop, and there was a sign “beer sold out”. The man was frustrated: “why not write humanely “beer sold out”, no, they wrote it “beer sold ooout” [said with a scoff]”. At that moment Bodh said into Z’s ear “beer sold ooout” with the same scoff. Z jumps up and then falls back into the bath. We had to mop up the puddles.
32. E, K and Bodh were returning from their trek from Everest and were on their way through Sanasa. We stopped to gaze at the mountains, and near us about seven meters away, there was a long table with different Tibetan decorations, souvenirs and other small things. K was looking at the table. Bodh was at a distance of about a meter from her looking the opposite direction. In some time he asked her: “do you want that yak?” This was a rhetorical question, as the tone was raised only at the end of the phrase. But as a whole the phrase was not significant. There were only two toy yaks on the table among dozens of other things, and K thought that she wanted that yak just before the moment when Bodh asked her. He had no reasons to make that assumption that she wanted to buy the yak, we never discussed it. Bodh could not see what direction she was looking at, on the table or on the mountains, and more than that – where exactly on the table she was looking. Before the trek we were buying some decorations, but never paid attention to the toy yaks.
33. L’s description: “Bodh was in the bath. The door was closed. From the room to the bathroom entrance there was a distance of about four meters. I was sitting on the mattress at the far end of the room, together with M, N and O. There was a player at the entrance to the room, with music on. N and O were discussing dances. I told M, that when I see how beautiful Bodh’s face and body is, a wish emerges to generate certainty-500 that it is possible to live 500 years and skeptical thoughts disappear. When Bodh came out of the bath, he looked into the room and said to me: “would you like to generate a certainty-150 for the beginning, it would be much easier?” BY NO MEANS could he hear what I was talking about, as there was quite a big distance between us, the door was closed, in the center of the room N and O were talking, music at the entrance was on, and my conversation with M was not loud.”
34. P’s description: “Bodh asked me why I do not live in that flat. I said: “because the furniture there was of Soviet time”, but in the beginning of the phrase, when I was on the word “because”, Bodh said: “throw it away!” It was impossible to guess, he had never been in that flat, and I never mentioned it. There may be thousands of reasons why I do not live there”.
35. For a very long time P did not see Bodh, then she wrote several letters to him. In a few days she had a strong wish to see him, and when she looked at her mail, she found his response: “Well, if you want – drop in”.
04-07 Possibility of new perceptions from the surrounding world
Of course one simple explanation is not enough to explicate all previous phenomena of the last paragraphs, but it is possible to make some relative assumptions, if give a thought to the following.
Our bodies can interpret the perception of electromagnetic waves into images by some mysterious way. Sound waves transform into sounds, interaction of electromagnetic fields into tactual senses (the sense of touching a table with your fingers is an interpretation result from interaction of electronic membrane of atoms that constitute skin and table. If everything is flickering before your eyes, the work of interpreting mechanism will be ruined and we will not be able to differentiate images. Same happens with the sounds and other senses. What if this continuous flickering of the chaotic inner dialogue blocks the functioning of one more interpreting mechanism? Can it be that when the mid disappears, there emerge thoughts of a different type that interpret interaction of the body and the surrounding world? For example, I am going to buy a monthly concession ticket and there emerges a thought – “there are no tickets”. An image appears like somebody makes a helpless gesture with his arms and says – “well, they didn’t print them yet”, and an image of another disappointed person, shouting something in response. Here I do not feel dullness, do not fill my boredom with some empty fantasies – these thoughts and images that emerge on their own, on the background of my enlightened state, interesting investigations and fullness of life. I go to the cash office and I am told – “the tickets are not printed yet”. Such a situation happens for the first time in a few years. Could my body in some mysterious way interpret certain perceptions that results in thoughts and images containing interesting information for me?
This way of perception seems to be strange and mystical. But if you give it a thought, our ordinary visual perception is also strange and mystical, isn’t it?
An assumption of a possibility of this perception of the world seems to be fantastic, but it is only because you stopped being surprised. You do not perceive what happens around you as a miracle and as a mystery, you made it all prosaic. But in reality miracles are not a rarity. I am looking afar and I see an elephant. This elephant is a kilometer away from me, but I already know that it is there, what it looks like, where it is going, what it is eating and so on! Imagine how shocking it would be for somebody without eyes, hearing or odor sense. We have our eyesight – a surprising interpreting mechanism of the light waves. And this is amazing.
A person that opens such possibilities in himself, experiences a real shock – it is like living without eyes, ears, a tongue and nose, and suddenly a whole waterfall of such ways of the world perceiving crashes on you, that you could not even imagine. “Past”, “future”, “unknown events” and many other things, whatever seems to be principally impossible for your cognition, opens as a direct knowledge and perception. So interesting to investigate, isn’t it?
It is possible ONLY when you:
*) have achieved perfect eradication of all NEs
*) 40, 100, 200 times a day remember yourself in the state of EPs experiencing, “jump” into this state, thus “generate” EPs.
*) experience continuous, intensive enlightened background
*) experience continuous background of enjoyment in your body
*) always consider critically any idea which has not been investigated before – as per how sound it is, whether it has contradictions, if there is a rational clarity in it and so on, thus you are not a person of dogmas
*) search for and try to realize your happy wishes, select them
*) experience relating to all the above mentioned, breaks in your chaotic mechanical inner dialogue.
04-08 Resonance of the wish to differentiate perceptions with EPs
A wish to differentiate perceptions, regardless of their form, ALWAYS shift the perceptions on the way to EPs, and their number increases. For example, if at the present moment I think, that I could experience EPs, or ask myself how it happens that at a certain moment a splash of EPs happens, or try to investigate what exactly I experience and why I do not have radiant EPs – all considerations of this kind, that are accompanied with an increased attention to the current perceptions, lead to splashes of EPs. And the more successful this differentiation, the more radiant and frequent these splashes are. Thus it is easy to check what kind of differentiation resonates with EPs.