#rob schouten

[pathofregeneration]

Rob Schouten, Still Moon, No Mind

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The Yoga Sutras of Patanjali: Meditation, part I

“1. Fixing the mind on a place, object, or subject is attention.

This is called Dharana.

2. The continuance of this attention is contemplation.

This is called Dhyana.

3. This contemplation, when it is practiced only in respect to a material substance or object of sense, is meditation.

This is called Samadhi.

4. When this fixedness of attention, contemplation, and meditation are practiced with respect to one object, they together constitute what is called Sanyama. ...

5. By rendering Sanyama—or the operation of fixed attention, contemplation, and meditaiton—natural and easy, an accurate discerning power is developed.

This ‘discerning power’ is a distinct faculty which this practice alone develops, and is not possessed by ordinary persons who have not pursued concentration.

6. Sanyama is to be used in proceeding step by step in overcoming all modifications of the mind, from the more apparent to those the most subtle. ...

9. There are two trains of self-reproductive thought, the first of which results from the mind being modified and shifted by the object or subject contemplated; the second, when it is passing from that modification and is becoming engaged only with the truth itself; at the moment when the first is subdued and the mind is just becoming intent, it is concerned in both of those two trains of self-reproductive thought, and this state is technically called ‘Nirodha’.

10. In that state of meditation which has been called Nirodha, the mind has an uniform flow.

11. When the mind has overcome and fully controlled its natural incnlination to consider diverse objects, and begins to become intent upon a single one, meditation is said to be reached.”

— William Q. Judge, The Yoga Aphorisms of Patanjali (Book III)

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Oblation by Rob Schouten // robschoutengallery.com

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[pathofregeneration]

Rob Schouten, Buddha Nature

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The Yoga Sutras of Patanjali: Meditation, part II

“12. When the mind, after becoming fixed upon a single object, has ceased to be concerned in any thought about the condition, qualities, or relations of the thing thought of, but is absolutely fastened upon the object itself, it is then said to be intent upon a single point—a state technically called Ekagrata. ...

24. By performing concentration in regard to benevolence, tenderness, complacency, and disinterestedness, the ascetic is able to acquire the friendship of whomsoever he may desire. ...

27. By concentrating his mind upon the sun, a knowledge arises in the ascetic concerning all spheres between the earth and the sun. ...

35. By concentrating his mind upon the Hridaya, the ascetic acquires penetration and knowledge of the mental conditions, purposes, and thoughts of others, as well as an accurate comprehension of his own.

Hridaya is the heart. There is some disagreement among mystics as to whether the muscular heart is meant, or some nervous center to which it leads. ...

36. By concentrating his mind upon the true nature of the soul as being entirely distinct from any experiences, and disconnected from all material things, and dissociated from the understanding, a knowledge of the true nature of the soul itself arises in the ascetic.

37. From the particular kind of concentration last described, there arises in the ascetic, and remains with him at all times, a knowledge concerning all things, whether they be those apprehended through the organs of the body or otherwise presented to his contemplation.

38. The powers hereinbefore described are liable to become obstacles in the way of perfect concentration, because of the possibility of wonder and pleasure flowing from their exercise, but are not obstacles for the ascetic who is perfect in the practice enjoined.”

— William Q. Judge, The Yoga Aphorisms of Patanjali (Book III)

[pathofregeneration]

Rob Schouten, Still Point

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The Yoga Sutras of Patanjali: Meditation, part V

“41. The mind that has been so trained that the ordinary modifications of its action are not present, but only those which occur upon the conscious taking up of an object for contemplation, is changed into the likeness of that which is pondered upon, and enters into full comprehension of the being thereof.

42. This change of of the mind into the likeness of what is pondered upon, is technically called the Argumentative condition, when there is any mixing-up of the title of the thing, the significance and application of that title, and the abstract knowledge of the qualities and elements of the thing per se.

43. On the disappearance, from the plane of contemplation, of the title and significance of the object selected for meditation; when the abstract thing itself, free from distinction by designation, is presented to the mind only as an entity, that is what is called the Non-Argumentative condition of meditation. ...

45. That meditation which has a subtile object in view ends with the indissoluble element called primordial matter.

45. The mental changes described in the foregoing, constitute ‘meditation with its seed.’

‘Meditation with its seed’ is that kind of meditation in which there is still present before the mind a distinct object to be meditated upon.

47. When Wisdom has been reached, through acquirement of the non-deliberative mental state, there is spiritual clearness.

48. In that case, then, there is that Knowledge which is absolutely free from Error.

49. This kind of knowledge differs from the knowledge due to testimony and inference; because, in the pursuit of knowledge based upon those, the mind has to consider many particulars and is not engaged with the general field of knowledge itself.

50. The train of self-reproductive thought resulting from this puts a stop to all other trains of thought. ...

51. This train of thought itself, with but one object, may also be stopped, in which case ‘meditation without a seed’ is attained.

‘Meditation without a seed’ is that in which the brooding of the mind has been pushed to such a point that the object selected for meditation has disappeared from the mental plane, and there is no longer any recognition of it, but consequent progressive thought upon a higher plane.”

— William Q. Judge, The Yoga Aphorisms of Patanjali (Book I)

[pathofregeneration]

My Songs

“They shall not wither, my flowers, They shall not cease, my songs, I, the singer, lift them up. They are scattered, they spread about. But even though my flowers may yellow They shall live In the innermost house Of the bird of the golden feathers.”

— From Colección de cantares mexicanos, MS 1628 bis, folio 16 (National Library of Mexico)

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Rob Schouten, Ancient Tales (1997)

[pathofregeneration]

Rob Schouten, The First Noble Truth

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“The first Noble Truth relates to human suffering. It proclaims that the conscious, separated, life of individual existence necessarily implies pain, sorrow and misery; that so long as a man feels that he is possessed of an isolated self or so long as he regards himself and his fellow men as detached personalities, having antagonistic or even independent interests, so long must he suffer and be subject to trouble, grief and disappointment. This first Noble Truth gives utterance to one aspect of an inexorable law of universal application, a law from whose operations no man can, or has, or ever will escape, until he has learnt and in the fullest sense realized the four Noble Truths. The first Truth may also be thus expressed: individual existence necessitates and involves change of state, whether manifested as birth, growth, decay or death, and all changes of state are accompanied by pain in one form or another on some plane of being; while those who seem in their own eyes to have escaped from pain, or those who imagine that others escape from it, are alike deluded, for all men are overtaken by it soon or late.”

— St. George Lane-Fox, The Four Noble Truths of Buddhism

[pathofregeneration]

Rob Schouten, On the Threshold

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“Man’s soul ‘dwells like a star apart,’ even that of the vilest among us; while his consciousness is under the law of vibratory and sensuous life. This alone is enough to cause those complications of character which are the material for the novelist; every man is a mystery, to friend and enemy alike, and to himself. His motives are often undiscoverable, and he cannot probe to them or know why he does this or that. The disciple’s effort is that of awaking consciousness in this starry part of himself, where his power and divinity lie sleeping. As this consciousness becomes awakened, the contradictions in the man himself become more marked than ever; and so do the paradoxes which he lives through. For, of course man creates his own life; and ‘adventures are to the adventurous’ is one of those wise proverbs which are drawn from actual fact, and cover the whole area of human experience. Pressure on the divine part of man re-acts upon the animal part. As the silent soul awakes it makes the ordinary life of the man more purposeful, more vital, more real, and responsible. To keep to the two instances already mentioned, the occultist who has withdrawn into his own citadel has found his strength; immediately he becomes aware of the demands of duty upon him. He does not obtain his strength by his own right, but because he is a part of the whole; and as soon as he is safe from the vibration of life and can stand unshaken, the outer world cries out to him to come and labour in it. So with the heart. When it no longer wishes to take, it is called upon to give abundantly.”

— H.P. Blavatsky, Comments on “Light on the Path”