My name is Bodhi.
This book is a practical guidance. It contains techniques which, if you follow them persistently and sincerely, is the shortest and clearest way for any person to be free of sufferings (of negative emotions, false concepts, mechanical wishes and unpleasant feelings) and to start a totally different life, full of discoveries and enlightened perceptions. The book is adapted to modern life and it is detailed enough as my wish is not just bring a reader to a simple splash of emotions followed by a depression and the return to previous dreary life, but to show the reader a direct path to the enlightened perceptions.
When I started this book in the year 2000, I hoped it was not all for nothing, but at a certain moment the book will resonate with somebody that will “recognize” it as the most wanted way of living. I had no idea when and how it was going to happen. By the year 2005 many thousands of people had read my book or some parts of it, a couple of hundred people tried to apply the techniques that I described in the book, and a few dozen got so involved and were happy with changes in their lives that now they cannot even imagine going back to the cultivation of sufferings. I am aware that my book can be in mass demand only in about one or two thousand years, but until then very few people will want to be set free, and for them this is the book. It is for those, who want to make this journey into the world of enlightened perceptions either now, or in 20 years, or in 2000 years.
The very fact, that this book exists, arouses negative feelings for a huge number of contemporary people, feelings ranging from moderate skepticism to strong abhorring. These are people who wish to continue experiencing negative emotions (because I offer a direct way of eradicating them), or people who stuck in innumerable dogmas (while I offer the way to clear up all what is not supported by personal experiences; the technique of developing a clear mind), or people who consider themselves as followers of a religion (because I offer the technique leading any person to the enlightened perceptions independently from gods, religious institutions or other mediators), or people who consider themselves esoteric (all “esoteric” sciences dictate that the path to enlightenment is hard and long, while I offer a very simple and clear technique that can lead the most distressed person to the total freedom from suffering and to the start of moving forward as a free being after just a few years of hard work!) and so on and etc.
The most irritating moment for “esoteric followers” is the fact that I am a “parvenu”, I have no diplomas, did not graduate from any “mysterious schools”, have no teachers, have no support from any authorities, I do not refer to any Scriptures, and nevertheless I offer the direct path to Clear consciousness, the path I have discovered myself being guided through hard work and sincere striving for clarity and the freedom from suffering. I do not have certificates recognizing my authority to offer this path and I act on the basis of a joyful wish and experience of my own and of others practicing this way.
There are so many “intelligent” books… but after reading them there are a minimum of three questions that keep appearing:
1) What to do exactly? How should it be done? How to get over the small obstacles that sometimes grow into insurmountable stumbling blocks?
2) If there is some advice in a book of what and how to do, still another question comes up: why? Why exactly this? How can I be sure if I dedicate heaps of time for these actions, will I reach something appealing for myself as a result?
3) How to understand what is to be done next? Should I be tied up to the origin of instructions?
My book replies to the first question, and the second question ceases to have significance, firstly, as long as in your efforts you are not guided by persuasions or beliefs, but only by the joyful wish accompanied by anticipation and thus you are pleased while acting no matter what the result. Secondly, the results of your efforts are immediate and you will enjoy them straight away, if right now you have eliminated a negative emotion, then instantly you experience the splash of enlightened perceptions.
As for the third question, while practicing you become your own compass, you gain the full clarity of techniques and experience joyful wishes and other enlightened perceptions leading you straight to an appealing state. My path is the direct elimination of suffering and it is a cultivation of aspiration for enlightened perceptions. IT IS POSSIBLE TO STOP EXPERIENCING NEGATIVE EMOTIONS, not to suppress, not to excuse or “accept them as they are”, but exactly stop the negative experience.
Instead of fantasizing about moving forward to the clear consciousness and being guided by some wise teacher in the Himalayas, you can travel right now and right here in a joyful, captivating and boundless journey in your mind.
It is possible to be a very distressed person – to hate, to envy, to be jealous, to wish to die, to be intolerable and greedy – any of these! And still there is the way out if you wish to experience appealing perceptions and to make the practical steps. If you happened to be in this poor state, be constructive about it. It does not matter why this has happened to you. It’s just necessary to realize what is to be done now and start doing it.
The Western man is already a committed devotee, he is willing to mortgage his life in order to have an apartment, a car and “be like all other respectable people”, thus suppressing all stamina for the sake of the imposed and artificial goals. To observe decencies one can be stuck in a marriage for decades, for many years one can go to the office without having any respite in order to have a modern apartment and a car. The contemporary Western man can overcome. He is an ascetic, but his asceticism is disgusting, because they get over their own joyful wishes, but not the obstacles to experience appealing perceptions. The contemporary man is a devotee, but the aim of his devotion is absurd and it is imposed from the outside and brings to continuous suffering.
Sometimes there comes a special feeling of “recognition”, which reminds you of touching something that you for a long time wanted to say to yourself and believe in it. With it you feel intensive fundamental truth and it helps you to be strong and confident to make an effort. The pressure of the environment from time to time is too high, and you can stop trusting that you can live and feel differently, that life can be real and of a higher quality.
Why I am writing it is for somebody to understand that there is a chance of such a life, and it is accomplishable. This is how this person lives, being an ordinary person with two arms and two legs and one head, also how other people live, following his practice, and it means it is possible for everybody with sincere aspirations. This book is an expression of my joyful wish to demonstrate a real and live example of such a way of living. I am not afraid to point my finger at myself and say: this is my way of living and you can live this way, for you all doors are open, do not care about your imposed thoughts that you are weak, wrong, silly, sinful and so on, that you “must” do this and that. Realize that you are capable of practicing which leads to the journey in the world of enlightened perceptions. My book is for those who agree with me: no matter what way you have chosen, in any case liberation from the worst distresses (negative emotions, mechanical concepts and wishes) will encourage your advancement further along your path.
Some people show up from nowhere that allegedly know “from inside” my life, my practice and are familiar with other people following this practice. They verbally abuse me and my practice, their efforts of intelligent criticism alternate with outrageous lies.
There will also show up “connoisseurs” and commentators of the direct path practice. They will juggle the terms, “specify” the practice, “improve” the path, “explain”, criticize from their great heights, offer help to other practitioners and announce that they are either my disciples, or my practicing partners or just practitioners. They have such an exceptional knowledge of what is written that they need none of my recognition of their comprehension. There are even such people that vaguely hint on some private contact with me and announce they are my former disciples or even co-authors. Refuting these lies is pointless. Firstly, no matter how much you refute, many more lies will come, and secondly, I don’t want to waste my time. If my book is of great importance for someone, that person will easily find out what’s right and wrong. I make every effort to encourage more and more people to apply the technology and be a torchbearer of enlightened perceptions and be experts, consultants and models for the beginners. These people appear and they call themselves “snouts”, because this word is associated for them with the fondness and affection they feel towards animals. I have very clear criteria for “snouts” and “non-snouts”. We also use the term “tail” designating a person who is practicing but did not acquire yet the sincerity, firmness, persistence, clarity and aspiration for enlightened perceptions, that make a snout to be a snout, but there are reasons to expect this person to achieve a condition of a snout.
If you want to identify whether a person you get advice from regarding the Practice of Direct Path (PDP) is a snout or a tail, or as minimum has equal level of distress as you, you can email me and ask.
The book is placed on my website www.bodhi.ru and is updated from time to time. There are also articles of other practitioners on the site and my book “Maya” and other materials. If you started practicing and wish to communicate with other practitioners, you can join the forum on the site.
Previously, when I started the book, I thought that if I use the simple words of common people, whether these words have a certain meaning or not, then it will be easier to convey to the readers my ideas at least with some minimal clarity. This way these ideas are not instantly rejected because they are far too different from what the people came across before and later on the practice itself will change them in the way that they will start clearing their minds. I have changed my approach now, because firstly I do not like such a prosaic style of writing, and secondly, I found out there appear people who practice actively and I want to add clarity in my book for them. That is why I am in the process of altering my book and I realize that this will reduce the number of readers as there will be not as many chances to have a bubbly experience when reading, but it will increase the quality for those that remain. I will be satisfied with that, as it will let me not to scatter my attention on those who don’t want to stop suffering.
I decided to write a number of books, and every one of them has a certain mission: the book “Direct Path to Clear Consciousness” is going to be a dull instruction, a manual. In the book “Maya” myself describe the life of practitioners in a form of a fictional work and it produces more impressions then instructions. The book “Tiger move” has the same mission as “Maya”, but it is more adapted for teenagers.
Collection of stories about sexual SE is for those who are keen on sexual development and have tendencies to use the sexual desires as a drive to improve. In this collection there are impressions and practical recommendations in the sphere of sexual development and getting over aberrations related to sex which are easily revealed on the basis of sexuality. “The Collection of Practitioners’ articles” is for more detailed highlights of specific moments that snouts come across in their practice. And so on. I decided to publish a whole series of books (and many of the snouts are also keen on writing), and every book, every creative element, will have in it a “nucleus” of practice covered by many different layers. Actually I am eager to create a new culture arising from the freedom from the negative emotions and taking roots from enlightened perceptions and joyful wishes.
While editing the book I asked myself: why do I address the male reader? I ask “If you wanted” using a male form of the verb?*¹ This is the way it is accepted, but as experience shows, mostly young ladies are the active and sincere practitioners. I don’t know why. The possible reason is in the social role, concepts and NE imposed on men that are of a stronger killing power than those imposed on females?
A man is a person of very high dignity, nearly afflicted with megalomania and aggression spilling over into dullness (“Stupidity is a lack of skills in intellectual work, and dullness is the incapability to think and reason consecutively and clearly being captured by NE. This is why even the most educated intellectuals as a rule are exclusively dull).
As for young ladies they quite often feel inferior, experience self-pity, insecurity which seems on average to have a weaker killing load. This or the other way, I decided to address a female reader as I do not see the reasons to follow an accepted stereotype. I do not have any doubts that this decision will cause lots of contempt from men, because, no matter how funny it is, nearly all of them sincerely think they are “advanced” and “intellectual”, while ladies for them are inferior.
*¹ Russian language verbs have different gender endings