In my last post, I took you through the first three parts of what are called the Five Ranks of Tozan. Tozan was a Zen master who lived about 1200 years ago, and his description of the stages of enlightenment are very well-respected and have stood the test of time for twelve centuries. To fully understand this post, I strongly suggest that you read my last post before you read this one, since this is the second of two parts.
So, in our last episode, we left our hero in the third of the Five Ranks, established in the transcendent. This Third Rank is what most people would consider “enlightenment.” In this stage one’s center is no longer a separate self, a separate ego, a separate, agentic “doer.” Instead, one’s center is experienced as being everywhere, and the only doer is the entire universe, the Tao, the entire going on of it all. In the Third Rank there are no boundaries, no beginning, no end. You are birthless and deathless. This is Genpo Roshi’s Big Mind.
In this place all opposites are clearly and obviously one thing. And, you ARE that one thing. You are the background, the ground of being, the awareness out of which everything comes and into which everything dissolves. You are pure awareness, awareness without content. Good and evil, life and death, me and not me, and all other supposed opposites have collapsed into just being–not being something, but just being.
The experience is one of peace…flowing…perfection…oneness. (For a more extensive description of the transcendent, you might want to read my post about the Unitive level of development, two posts back.)
At any rate, there you are–enlightened.
Pretty cool, huh? Everything is perfect. Good/bad, having/not having, healthy/unhealthy, alive/dead, whatever–from this perspective, the universe is dancing along in a perfect way, and you are that dance. There’s nothing outside of you, so what could you possibly fear? There’s also nothing to get, because your experience is one of completeness. Since nothing is outside of you, what would you get–and where would you get it? There’s nowhere to go, because you’re everywhere.
In addition to being everything and everywhere, you’re also everyWHEN, because it’s obvious from this perspective that time is an illusion–or, more properly, nonsensical. It’s always NOW, and it will always be now. Even “now” doesn’t make sense, because now only exists or makes sense in relation to not-now, and there’s nothing from this perspective that’s not-now.
This is Eckhart Tolle’s now moment, the presence, except you don’t have to do anything to get yourself there. In fact, it’s not a matter of getting there or not getting there. It isn’t that there is a you that then experiences it. You are IT. Your experience of life isn’t some thing or some place to get to, but rather WHO YOU ARE.
When “you” act, it’s obvious that it’s the entire universe acting, not some separate person or separate ego. All divisions are seen for what they are–ideas, an artificial and arbitrary mental chopping of the One into pieces. No division is real, other than in the mind.
This is, to be sure, a tremendously great experience (especially at first, because of the contrast with what it felt like to be–supposedly–separate). After a while, you integrate the experience, and it isn’t so novel anymore. At that point it feels more “ordinary,” but as I said in my last post (quoting D.T. Suzuki), it’s like normal life, but about two inches off the ground.
So what’s missing from this place, the Third Rank of Tozan, where you’re everything, everywhere, everywhen? Heart, for one thing. Though at this stage you see the suffering of humanity, and you feel compassion for all those who are caught in it, you can’t help thinking that if people would just wake up to who they really are they could step out of it, just as you have. You certainly feel tremendous love for humanity–in fact, for everything–but you are, to a certain extent, detached from it all. So in one sense you do have heart, but it’s a detached heart, you might say.
Many great teachers live at the Third Rank. A person at this stage has tremendous charisma, and what Eastern mystical schools call “shakti,” divine power or energy. Others, if they have enough sensitivity, can “feel” you. They sense your power, your centeredness, your equanimity, that you are somehow above it all and not caught in the same bullshit everyone else seems to be caught in.
In the 60s and 70s we used to say that you could get a “contact high” from being around such a person. Because of this contact high, this vicarious taste of the transcendent, and the clear and potent teaching of someone at this stage, students typically love (and flock to) teachers who are at the Third Rank.
Even though the Third Rank is such a great place to be, it’s considered in Zen to be another place of stuckness. Just as you can be stuck in the relative world (as most people are), you can also be stuck in the transcendent. In Zen they say, “Enlightenment is delusion.” There are Zen stories where a disciple in the Third Rank says to the Master, “The geese and the mountains and the wind are all the Tao, aren’t they, Master?” and the Master says, “Yes, but it disgusts me to hear you say so.” At a certain point a Zen teacher may begin to tell his enlightened student that he “stinks of Zen.”
This happens partly because the teacher sees that the student, though “enlightened” in the sense that he is established in the transcendent, is, to a degree, lacking heart. The Third Rank is, by its very nature, impersonal. Though its perspective is one of seeing and encompassing all connections, all relationships–everything–the person at this stage doesn’t really FEEL those relationships. There is a denial, or perhaps you could say a distancing from, or an impersonality toward, the suffering of the world.
At the Third Rank you’re on the mountain top, and everything below you in the valley seems far away. From the mountain top it seems as if everything is perfect (which, in a sense, it actually is), including the suffering in the world. “God is playing all the parts. He who suffers and he who inflicts the suffering are both God in disguise.” In one sense this is true. However, there is a lack of personal connection to that suffering. “If only I could help other beings wake up, they would see the perfection I see, and they, too, would be out of the world of suffering and impermanence.”
I asked Genpo Roshi for his thoughts on this, and on the next step, the Fourth Rank, which he describes as a fall from grace. Here is a summary of what he told me:
When we have the experience of Great Death and Great Liberation (taking us to the Third Rank), the ego attaches to the “non-experience experience” of enlightenment and appropriates it. The ego becomes inflated and ignores cause and effect. It seems as if there is no ego, but there is. The ego is denying the ego in order to co-opt the enlightenment experience as its own. Karma, however, inevitably accumulates (in other words, cause and effect continue to work). Eventually the ego balloon pops from its own inflation. When this happens, there is a fall from grace–and in that fall from grace (which is the Fourth Rank) the relative world and all its suffering can no longer be denied and comes back with full force.
Where the Third Rank was impersonal, the Fourth Rank is very personal, and very humbling. In the Third Rank you thought you were beyond the world of suffering, that you had escaped from the vicissitudes and problems of the human condition. Now, having fallen, you’re up to your neck in personal problems, personal suffering, and the human condition. In fact, it seems worse than before. Everything is personal, and everything is relational. You feel your own suffering, plus that of all the others who suffer. And, having fallen from so high, you are humbled. In the Third Rank you felt quite extraordinary. Now you realize that you’re incredibly and totally ordinary.
And, in the Fourth Rank, you FEEL. You feel everything. Before the First Rank, back in pre-stage one, you were subject to the world of human suffering, but this time it’s different. In pre-stage one you were unaware, unconscious, unawake. Now you’re very awake, very conscious. And, because you are so conscious, so aware, you feel everything.
In the Third Rank you were “one with the universe”–but you were detached from the human aspect. You saw the suffering and even felt compassion about it. Perhaps you worked to help others wake up, to help others out of their suffering, but you weren’t really FEELING it. Now you are. You’re really one with everything now, including all the suffering. And, it hurts.
This is, however, not the same as it was when you were just another unconscious human being, before your “enlightenment” experience. Without having the experience of the first three Ranks you wouldn’t be able to handle what you’re feeling and experiencing in the Fourth Rank. In pre-stage one you had many defenses and ways of avoiding. You were able to repress, ignore, project, and otherwise delude yourself. You had “great hope” for something better in the future, some heaven or some better state or situation to hope for and anticipate.
Having experienced Great Doubt, though (part of the transition to the Third Rank), and having the awareness to clearly see reality for what it is, you now KNOW that there’s no escape. And, there’s no going back to your previous pre-stage one delusional state–or, to the delusion of the Third Rank. You’ll never again be able to feel that you’re above it all–that you’re divorced from the world, from suffering, from the human condition, and from cause and effect.
The Fourth Rank shatters the ego in the sense that from this point on delusion becomes very difficult. You know too much to be deluded by the Relative–and you also know too much to be deluded by the Transcendent. All the pain of being human, you discover, is real, and there’s no escape from it.
One famous Buddhist teaching is that of Buddha’s Four Noble Truths. The first Truth is that all life is suffering. This is so because everything is in time, everything is transient. Sometimes we get what we don’t want, which creates suffering. Sometimes we don’t get what we do want, which also creates suffering. And even when we get what we want, we still suffer because when we get what we want it still exists in time and eventually passes away. Whatever we get we eventually lose because all things, at least in the relative world, have a beginning and an ending.
The second Truth is that suffering is caused by our attachment to things being a certain way–especially our attachment to life, to the idea that we must go on living.
The third Truth is that suffering can be ended by giving up attachment, and the fourth Truth is the method for doing that. (We could go much more deeply into the Four Noble Truths, but I won’t do that now because I’m introducing them just to make a particular point, which is…)
In the Third Rank, we think that we’ve given up attachment, and therefore ended suffering, but we haven’t. When you’re in the Third Rank it certainly seems like it, because everything feels perfect. Everything is flowing effortlessly and you’re continuously happy. However, the truth is that you’ve just found something else to be attached to (the transcendent) and another (and much more elegant) way to delude yourself about what it means to be human (what a bummer, huh?). You’ve stepped out of the relative entirely, as if it didn’t really exist.
In the Fourth Rank you find that the relative is real, and you can’t avoid it. You discover that cause and effect are all too real. As long as you’re here, in a body, being human, cause and effect will hunt you down, and there’s no avoiding it. The Fourth Rank is painful—and Genpo Roshi tells me that it took him years to recover from his fall from grace.
So what does it take to get out of the Fourth Rank? And what is the Fifth Rank all about? The Fifth Rank is the integration of the relative and the transcendent. I’ve referred to it in other things I’ve written as knowing who you really are (ultimately, that you are the transcendent, the entire going on of it all, Big Mind, beyond all beginnings, beyond all endings, and without boundaries or limits) but also knowing that you are expressing That from the perspective of a limited human being, living in time, subject to the laws of cause and effect, subject to karma.
Genpo Roshi sometimes calls someone in the Fifth Rank the one who chooses to be a human being. Knowing what you know, being unable to delude yourself anymore about who you really are, and what is really real, you choose to be here, you choose to be human.
(This is, in fact, the only stage at which you actually could choose to be a human being, where you really have the ability to make a conscious choice. Before this stage, you wouldn’t make this choice. At previous stages you either don’t know enough to choose (you don’t really see things the way they are). And, if you did know enough, you wouldn’t make this particular choice. You wouldn’t be strong enough, aware enough, wise enough, or compassionate enough.
In a sense the Fifth Rank involves another, and even deeper, surrender than that which you went through in the Second Rank, because now you really feel the reality of the relative and KNOW that there is no escape (at least as long as you’re a living human being). In the Fifth Rank you surrender to what is in a whole new way, because for the first time you really know what is.
This is not unlike the story of Jesus, who is seen as being the Son of God (in other words, the transcendent), yet takes the form of a human being, despite the suffering involved in being human. There is a famous passage in St. Paul’s Epistle to the Phillippeans which describes this choice to be a human being:
Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus:
Who, being in the form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God:
But made himself of no reputation, and took upon him the form of a servant, and was made in the likeness of men:
And being found in fashion as a man, he humbled himself, and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross. (Philippeans 2:5)
When you consciously choose to be a human being, fully knowing what is involved, and being totally awake to (and fully feeling) your own suffering and the enormity of the suffering of all of humanity–while also knowing at the same time that you are simultaneously the unborn, undying transcendent–something remarkable happens. Having REALLY surrendered to what is, you’re free.
Freedom, in this case, however, doesn’t mean freedom from suffering. It means the freedom to CHOOSE. In surrendering you don’t remove yourself from cause and effect, or from the fact that human bodies and psyches are sensitive and therefore subject to both pleasure and pain. At the Fifth Rank, however, you can choose your suffering.
What do I mean by that? You may have heard me describe The Game of Black and White, where we divide the world into two piles, the desirable (White) pile and the undesirable (Black) pile. Then, we add the rule that White Must Win. Since White and Black GO TOGETHER and define each other (and are really just ideas about reality, anyway–not reality itself), White can’t win, any more than up could win over down. In playing this game we put ourselves in a double-bind, an unwinable situation.
To be here, to be human, you have to play the game of Black and White at least a little bit. You can’t be human without becoming attached to something. Without desire you wouldn’t eat or come in out of the cold. Without desire, we wouldn’t procreate, and humanity would cease to exist. The unconscious person, however, plays the Game of Black and White without knowing that it’s an unwinable game. The unconscious person creates one kind of suffering after another by playing a hard and serious version of the Game of Black and White, desperately trying to get White to win.
The enlightened person, the person at the Fifth Rank–the one who consciously chooses to be a human being–chooses when and how he plays. He plays with full awareness of the karma he is creating, with full awareness of how cause and effect works. Though he is, relative to other unconscious and unaware people, unattached to life, he still chooses, for instance, to be attached, to some degree, to his children, his spouse, his friends, his motorcycle, his body, his life–or whatever.
Since he is very aware that everything is in time, he knows that whatever he becomes attached to will eventually pass away, and that becoming attached to anything has consequences. But the Fifth Rank human being doesn’t become attached unconsciously, like other humans. He chooses, and he chooses knowing full well what the consequences are. And, moment by moment, he surrenders to those consequences. The surrendering of the one who chooses to be a human being therefore isn’t a one-time event, but rather ongoing, in each moment. And, in being fully aware of the consequences of his actions, the one who chooses to be a human being avoids all sorts of unconscious suffering common to most human beings.
Genpo Roshi uses a triangle to describe the integration of relative and transcendent, self and no-self, mind and no-mind. The lower left corner of the triangle represents the relative, the world of the mind, the separate self. The lower right represents the transcendent, Big Mind, the world of no-self or no-mind.
The apex of the triangle represents the integration of the relative and the transcendent, the place where one has transcended and included both. The only way to really be in the world and be fully aware–and fully human–is to integrate both mind and no-mind, relative and transcendent, to transcend and include both. This is what Jesus meant by “being in the world, but not of it.”
Genpo Roshi also refers to the one who chooses to be a human being as “the Master.” When you integrate relative and transcendent, you become the master of your life. You are subject to cause and effect, and the impermanence of the relative world, but you have mastered life by fully (and continually) surrendering to the fact that this is the way things are. You have mastered life, not by defeating Black, as others try to do in playing the Game of Black and White, but rather by embracing Black and White–ending resistance to Black while also surrendering to the impermanence of White–and then, transcending them both.
A person at the Fifth Rank lives spontaneously. He is completely alive, completely comfortable in his own skin, and completely comfortable being a human being.
And that is a rare event.
******
A few announcements before I let you go.
1. I want to urge you once again to come and experience Genpo Roshi (and me) in person at our New York workshop, June 28-29. I promise that it WILL change your life. Just go to www.centerpointe.com/bigmind to register. There are a FEW spots left. Since every workshop so far has sold out, if you’re interested in attending NOW is the time to decide to go and sign up. You’ll be VERY glad you did. I look forward to meeting you in person.
2. I’ve just launched a free online course about the work of Eckhart Tolle, featuring several awakened teachers: Genpo Roshi, Ken Wilber, Saniel Bonder and Linda-Groves Bonder, Diane Hamilton, Sally Kempton, and me. If you’ve been captivated by Eckhart Tolle, his books, and the lessons he’s been teaching through Oprah, and want to learn more of the power of Now and how to awaken to who you really are, go enroll in this free course I’ve put together for you. Just go to www.masteringthepowerofnow.com.
Next, I think I’ll write something about Holosync, but I’ll also tie in many of the other topics you’ve asked me to write about. Thank you so much for your suggestions and your other posts. Do let me know what you think about this one–I really want your feedback. Also DO tell others about this blog, please.
Be well.
Bill are you sure you know what you’re talking about…….
You’re trying to describe enlightenment (second hand at that ) to the masses. And 99.9 % of the masses won’t even get half way there ?
I’ll give you credit, you might not have enlightenment, but
you have balls !!!
yours trudie Roger !!!
Thank you!
Thank you so much, Bill, for the last two blog entries on Tozan’s five ranks. Reading this last entry was especially exciting and delightful for me, because it’s giving voice to a vision of spiritual realization and awakening that is more grounded, more human, and more mature than, IMHO, the great majority of what is being offered today. I will share this with my friends.
With Deep Gratitude,
Sean
ok, this is my second comment.
Doesn’t any experience of big heart, or big connection to all life count as a stage 4 experience?
I mean I have grieved for my parents generation, as the majority of them watch their friends die, and more than that they watch their entire culture, the so called golden age of television vanish from it’s glory into something that is no more than a doodle in the makeup of history.
Isnt it enough to feel big heart from a GREEN development level, pre-enlightenment?
Centerpointe taught me how to rethink my mind, perhaps the most valuable lesson ever, but those of us at lower developments have been to the fifth stage many a time.
I have been to the bring of despair, fear, suicide, and the choice to live, the choice to choose my existence. and based on your earlier writings Bill about your own troubled years as an drug seeking young man I think you would agree?
the downfall of man, his shame for error, his nakedness in sin, all of it is cyclical right?
So what’s the difference then with a post enlightenment fall?
I’m only asking because what I want to hear is some practical sense about how stage four & five can benefit myself, my family, and this world that we, you Bill, and I live in.
How can we in a practical sense, make this world a more intelligent, respectful, and kind place for life forms like us?
I know this is a stretch, but your centerpointe audio technology is special, and you have felt the effects longer than most. Do you personally see any problems with Tozan’s five ranks?
What do you think is the practical value of knowing it?
Dear Bill,
This last blog is truly inspiring. There is a part of me that gets it. I don’t know how because enlightenment is not my state. But somehow I feel the truth of it. It rings true.
It’s quite interesting to know that certain stages of enlightenment are not The end. That there is more to being a Human Being than we barely know. I didn’t realize that enlightened humans can get stuck on certain levels (that of the shining ones who attract many) Somehow the 4th stage of Falling off the Mountain rings very true. And really feeling the suffering and the doubts and being part of this world but not of it..helps us to want to be of service to others but not attached to it. I experience many stages but cannot stay there. There are wonderful glimpses. I have just recently ordered the BigMind BigHeart DVD’s and when viewing them experienced the state of the voices of the True Human BEing. It felt quite profound in that I had the experience of the voices before the group talked from the voices in those states or chapters. It was a gift. Was it because I was in touch with Genpo Roshi in the Spiritual state viewing the DVD’s… or was it because we can all have these experiences if we want to when we know we can?
I’m very happy of the direction that you are taking us on our Holosync trail… is it spontaneous or planned from the beginning? Best everything, Aisjah
Thanks Bill,
You really have a great talent at communicating highly esoteric ideas in a way that makes them very understable. I’ve always thought that the 3rd rank would be such a ‘cool’ state to be in, and wondered how or why someone leaves it. Your blog has really given me an insight into this, and the danger of the ego becomming attached to the transcendent. We live in a most enlightened age. Web sites like yours really demonstrate the power of the Internet and the digital age to communicate ideas to people, and I get to choose what I download. I could choose to download porn sites or other distractions, or I can choose to download material that elevates my thoughts toward a higher state of being. Just keep on writing and we’ll keep reading.
Cheers
Steve Edwards
FROM BILL: The Third Rank IS a cool place to be. It’s just that it is a place that denies cause and effect, the world of the relative. After a while that catches up with you. It might take many years, as it did for Genpo Roshi, or only several months, as it was for me, but eventually the relative world intrudes into your delusion and brings you down to earth. At that point, you have to integrate both transcendent and relative, which could also take many years.
Thanks Bill, I really enjoyed this particular post of yours.
I have often been bemused at Dr David Hawkins’ assertion that one should seek to remove all notions of causality from one’s thinking, because this seems to me to be somewhat at odds with the concept of Karma. Reading your post, therefore, it seems that, assuming he is ‘enlightened’ in any sense of the word, Dr Hawkins may be at the Third Rank.
Irrespective of this particular point, I found your post very interesting (I suppose that simply means my ego found it worthy of attention!
Many thanks.
John
Great article! I attended Genpo’s 2 day talk in NY a few months ago and heard him give this teaching on the 3rd, 4th (fall) and 5th stage of enlightenment. I wonder if it’s possible to not “fall” so hard from stage 3 if one is conceptually aware of what they are experiencing; i.e. if/when one of us reading this article “attains” stage 3, will we expect to “fall” and not feel too much pain when we do? Will we pay more attention to human suffering? I’d imagine so….I hope so. But Bill, as you wrote when addressing Tim’s comments (near top), Genpo is suffering far less than we are…..encouraging!
-Chris Z
FROM BILL:
Generally the experience of the Third Rank is so incredible, and so much supercedes an ideas you have about the process (which you ditched during the Big Doubt aspect of the Second Rank, anyway), that you become totally absorbed in the transcendent. This absorbtion is so vast, so complete, that you can’t imagine a fall, or even not being in that place. Unfortunately, it is an illusion, at least in the sense that you are beyond cause and effect (which is what it seems like), and this eventually creates a fall where you discover that karma continues to function.
I have been lucky (privelaged) to have had several moments of sartori – each moment was so perfect, everything was just right, just marvellous. It is only now that I realize that these moments were probably 3rd rank types. Because at the time, even suffering seamed ok! I have much to learn! Thanks…
FROM BILL:
A “moment” of satori is the First Rank. The Third Rank is when you are in satori continuously.
Hi Bill
Want to let you know that I absolutely loved your last postings on the 5 ranks. I find it highly pertinent and useful, actually more so than the previous developmental stuff, though that was also important.
I would love to hear more about holosync, particularly, how it connectsto enlightenment, and the stuff you have already been writing about such as the 5 ranks.
I assume that as one meditates for more and more time, one spontaneoulsy will grow into the deeper stages of enlightenment.
So it seems that a spteady practice of meditation with holosync can take you to the higher levels of conciousness.
interestingly, you mentioned the process of doubting. I have had that continually with holosync, doubting the process. So that information really helped me.
once again, I would love to hear more about holosync and how holosync can help me become morea live and happy, more enlightened and truly peaceful, while at the same time, helping me to become more able to be functional. Which I feel is what you experienced.
There are many great meditation tools out there which help someone to relax very deeply, though they do not do anything to develop the mind to be able to to become more effective in the world (something I really need in my job and in this fast paced world). This is why i chose holosync as it seems to be able to help me cope better with my job, as it helps me to concentrate, while at the same time, it is meant to develop deep relaxation. though so far, my meditations have been quite uncomfortable due to the strength of teh stimulis so afr.
Dave
Dave
hi,
I can relate to msg 5 from Tim.
In Wilbers book One Taste pg29 ‘Who Actually Wants to Transform?’ he says
I once asked Katagiri Roshi how many truly great Ch’an and Zen masters ther have historically been. Without hesitating, he said, ‘maybe one thousand altogether’. I asked another Zen master how many truly enlightened–deeply enlightened–Japanese zen masters were alive today,and he said ‘Not more than a dozen’.
So when you say ‘And that is a rare event’ at the end of your post, is this how rare it is?
The possibility of getting to rank 3 seems daunting enough. 500,000,000 Buddhists alive today and the planet obviously is’nt weighed down with Enlightened people.
Could it not be the case that people like yourself,Genpo,Tolle,Adi da,Andrew cohen are but ‘the few of a generation’ whatever tools and techniques are involved?
I look forward to your interview with the Bonder,s as they seem to have a track record of taking people to a certain realization which is encouraging.
Thanks
Will
FROM BILL:
I may be misquoting the exact details here, but I have heard that the Buddha once said to his close deciples that the proportion of those who achieve the first Rank (though this was before Tozan he was referring to what Tozan decribes as the First Rank) compared to the great mass of humanity was like a handful of sand from the banks of the Ganges River compared to all the grains of sand along its banks from its beginnings in the Himalayas to where it flows into the ocean.
Then he took a pinch of sand between his forefinger and thumb and said that this was the the proportionate number of those who attain the Third Rank. Then he sprinkled a few grains from that pinch onto the back of his thumbnail, and said that this was the proportionate number who fully wake up.
There are several people who posted comments assuming that they are in this rank or that, and though anything is possible, and they might be right, I tend to doubt their personal assessment–partly because attaining even the First Rank is rare, and attaining the others are REALLY rare. Unless a person works with a teacher who has attained himself (or herself), getting past the First Rank is unlikely–possible, but unlikely.
Having said that, we are in a new era in the sense that the number of people who are privy to information that could help them wake up is much greater, and we have media (internet, etc.) that allows a teacher to be in conact with many more people. On the other hand, most of these people are not living a life where they can really focus on spiritual practice. Most of the beings who have awakened have living a life consisting mostly if not entirely of spiritual practice. They were not living a typical 21st century Western life. I see things like Holosync and Big Mind taking up the slack to some extent, but if a person really wants to awaken in the profound sense I’m writing about here, it’s probably not going to happen from doing some sort of practice an hour a day.
Hello Bill,
thank you for your insightful post.
A few revealing questions I’m curious about…
1) What is a human being?
I may look like a “human being” but aren’t I really just made up of “semi-conscious, self-cohesive dust”?
2) Why more titles… “Master”?
Isn’t the implication of arriving at “Master”, a self-diluting proposition of supposed ego? Is it even possible to arrive at something that is forever fleeting?
3) Why the distinction of ranks? It seems that I experience various aspects of each of the ranks you describe within moments of one another, and have since I was very young yet could never anchor it to anything in the causal world. Your teaching of subjugation here is helpful, but I believe the 5 ranks are occuring simultaneously (which really means they aren’t happening at all), and since time is an illusion why even consider time as a component of the supposed rank’s dynamics?
4) Why reference to an ego that doesn’t exist?
Aren’t we projecting the illusion that Freud’s imposed structural model of the psyche is in fact “real” and not just “make believe”, yet is taught in every college on the planet as “ho-hum”… acceptable fact?
The last time I looked for my ego, I couldn’t find one.
To the essence of what simply is, all these “things” seem to clutter the simplicity of what is being taught here.
Why is it that “human beings” perpetually attempt to define that which cannot be defined… isn’t it all just “relative” to commerce?
One last comment, Genpo’s use of the triangle closely resembles…
left brain+right brain = more integrated brain
Your curious friend and student,
Lewi
FROM BILL:
The Zen community has titles. I didn’t create them. And, I’ll say that if a person gets to the point where a Zen master declares that he, too (or she), is a Zen master, that person HAS attained something. This is not something very many humans ever do, and they don’t declare just anyone to be a Zen master.
It seems like “tit;es” or achievements may represent a shadow part of you. What is wrong with acknowledging attainment of something?
In this case, I suspect that you are referring to my comment that Genpo Roshi calls “the one who chooses to be a human being” the Master. In this case, he means the master of his own life, not the master of someone else. In fact, even a Zen master isn’t considered to be the master of other people, though others may certainly have such great respect and reverence for him that they look to him as an authority and as a mentor or even a parental figure. But so what? People at that level of consciousness are not into being “better” than others. They are more likely to have realized how incredibly ordinary they are.
I want to say thanks for clearing that up. I’ve been at the 3rd, now in the 4th making way to the 5th. I was a bit confuse about my stage of development. “How can I come so far only to sink again but did I really sink?”, was the question for me.
Be balance,
Het-Heru
Hi,
And thanks for the reply to my post (a few msg above) even if it was somewhat distresssing.
So we can assume that anyone reading this is rank1 or below. We visit the transcendant with holosync or a technique Tolle has instructed. We just might be in the handful of sand from the Ganges river bank as you say.
Rank 2 you seem to suggest is only usually possible by devoting your life to spiritual practice and is not going to happen doing a practice 1hr aday. And you will probably need an enlightened teacher (thin on the ground round these parts) to surrender and submit to before stepping off the 100FT pole. For those of us who are seeking rank3 this IS news we can use.
Adyashanti,whos from a Zen background, remarks that in his experience that however much you practiced there was still an undercurrent in Zen that you just were not going to get Enlightened which he found impossible to handle and eventually led to, yes you guessed it, a Spontaneous Awakening. Choosing a teacher or a Guru seems a hard call.
And of course dont forget to become a multi-millionaire and keep the wife and kids.
Maybe Tolle got it right with ‘introducing’ people to inviting prescence into their daily lives, thus maybe visiting the transcendant. As trying to ‘live’ in the transcendant would seem to entail his multitude of readers packing a bag and tracking down Adi da or someone.
What are your thoughts about the future of the the internet and how it could be used as teacher/Guru? Digital Darshan? Transmission through Technology?(Trade mark:)) Exciting possibilities though none of us are getting any younger!
Thanks once again for the posts, they are worth reading again and again.
Will.
FROM BILL:
I’m not saying that a person cannot go through these stages without a teacher, or even that some people reading these posts might not already be at one of these stages. However, it is rare. The world pulls at most people’s attention in such a way that only now and then are they willing or able to observe and live from the place Tolle (for instance) talks about. The rest of the time they are lost in the world created by their own mind, the world of past and future, the world of wanting this and avoiding that, the world of the supposed separate self–thinking that all of it is real. It takes quite a bit to disengage from all of that–and then, to find your way back into the relative, but without becoming lost again. I’ve just found that most people overestimate where they are in this process–which is ego. Or, they feel as if the whole thing is impossible, which actually is also ego.
There are many ways to wake up. I managed to do so by diving into Hinduism (in my 20s and 30s), then through a lot of Holosync use (in my thirties and forties), and then into Buddhism, but without ever really having a true allegience to any particular tradition or having one particular teacher (until now, with Genpo Roshi, who is part teacher and part colleague). Most people aren’t as committed and disciplined as I am, and waking up without one on one help is less likely (though possible). For some reason I tend to be pretty good, for whatever reason, at going it on my own. I do think the path of having an awakened teacher (such as Genpo Roshi) is much easier and faster, but then you have the problem of finding such a person, and trusting them. And, you still have to be disciplined and committed.
And, even with all of this, there are no guarantees. As Ken Wilber has said, “Enlightenment is an accident. Meditation just happens to make you more accident prone.” Awakening isn’t something you can DO, because there is no separate doer. That is one of the main illusions that awakening dispels. Without a doer, who would awaken, or do this or that in order to awaken? Awakening happens as part of the unfolding of the universe. Whatever I did to awaken might have seemed like “I” was doing it, but it was really the universe as a whole doing its thing.
Just finished reading your post. I am at a place where I can intellectualize the concepts presented regarding the Five Ranks of Tozan – even have an awareness of where I might be. Unless one is fortunate enough to spontaneously become enlightened, the amount of work to be done is almost daunting!
The five stages you mentioned are the same ones in reverse with the exception of ‘being’.It also reflects the cosmic law (if i may say so!) that opposites are the same but of different polarity,just as we say that love and hate are not opposites in the sense of the word.Its something like the return of the native, much humbler than ever before, indeed acceptance takes a new meaning here., all the same of being aware of the ‘doing’ that needs to be ‘done’.Truly .. relative ! I guess this is at best experienced rather than being spoken or written though the written lends itself to expression better !
Fascinating. I feel like I’ve just toured the all time & the universe. I was brought up in a strict religious family & I later rejected religion. However my need to be “right” has affected / limited many parts of my life – from dismissing others points of view because I was right – to undervaluing myself or failing to challenge myself because I wasn’t sure what was right.
I’ve been searching for a bigger picture and you’ve tied together so many of my experiences, thoughts and issues (or should I say sufferings) that I now am more peaceful with what is. I was really looking forward to Stage 5 being even “better” (no such thing eh) than stage 4 but it’s fantastic to know that what is – is and we should experience it fully. I’ve also been a school teacher – again wanting to be right most of the time. It’s a misnomer really – we are taught to limit our students ability to learn more openly- and the experience puts so many children off learning as a life long process! What a pity your training isn’t a compulsory part of our teacher training process. When are you & Genpo coming to Australia?
Bill, what about important physical limitations? Do you feel your customers should know about the calcification of the Pineal gland from fluoride or disassociative neurotoxins like aspartame that work directly against feeling the oneness. I find that certain nootropics have accelerated my progress. How is your third eye? What is your opinion on this gland? Thanks IA
Oh yeah, how can one jump to deeper levels of holosync at the retreat? I love your program and do not intend to sound rude. Thanks.
Thank you, Bill. Even though we don’t know each other, I feel as though this post was written directly to me. This was exactly what I needed right now.
It seems to me that the triangle symbolism is similar to the Holy Trinity from Catholicism– “relative, mind, seperate self” is the Son Jesus…”transcendant, Big Mind, no-self” is the Holy Spirit… and “integration of relative and transcendant” is God the Father. HMM??!!
Hi Bill, Many thanks for each of your overviews into stages of development. I have just been working on a spreadsheet looking at the turning points of my life in relation to Spiral Dynamics, Western approaches to developmental stages and the 5 Ranks of Tozan. It explains why much of my journey of late has been a little lonely. I perceive things differently. I hestitate to post the following because it might just be that I’ve completely misunderstood your intention, but bear with me as I’ve got a point at the end.
Back in 1983 I started meditating and could instantly access the transcendant at will. I couldn’t understand why others couldn’t and, or, weren’t interested or believed it possible. At that stage I was still at the Individualist stage. In 1985 my illness became critical and with no hope of recovery went into a period of total surrender, stepped out into the void and doubted everything and it was OK. It was a pivotal time in my life and life has not been the same since. Your description of Tozan stages 2 and 3 fitted my experience of that time except that I didn’t have any recognition from society of my development and insights. Perhaps that was because I still had a lot of shadow work to do. I recovered in 40 days and consolidated over the next years. If I read you as you intended I immediately dropped into the Strategist stage. Then after a period of stabilisation and formal education I moved into the Fourth Rank (and Magician stage) where I FELT and pain and suffering was the norm. Your description of my last decade was so accurate. I had never seen any description of it anywhere before. I had just made the decision a month or so ago to drop back into surrender and submission. And was mildly amused to find that is the way to go into the Fifth Rank.
I guess the point of this is that it might not be necessary to be in Magician stage to be at Rank one of Tozan. Life might drop us into it without us being “ready” for it in the Western developmental sense. I think I still moved through the Western stages of development in order, and through the Tozan ranks in parallel rather than consecutively.
I would be interested in your comments and would be happy to correspond if you would like further clarification.
P.S. One minor criticism that I have of your posts and of Wilber’s ‘Sex, Ecology, Spirituality’ is a certain lack of precision in the use of such concepts as “oneness” and “unity” with all things, a lack of precision that can lead scientific empiricists to disregard mysticism altogether as nonsense.
Absolute oneness with everything would imply telepathy, and I know that this isn’t what you or Wilber mean to say. Individual human beings who meditate don’t literally feel all of the feelings of every entity in the universe. Ken Wilber doesn’t know what’s going on in the minds of every human being on the planet or in the minds of intelligent beings in other star systems. And you don’t literally feel how everything in the world is actually interconnected. If you did, we could tell all of the scientists to quit their empirical investigations and instead just meditate alone in their rooms in order to figure out how the whole physical, biological, and social worlds work, which is essentially what philosophical rationalists thought that they could do in the ancient, medieval, and early modern periods. Modern empiricism is the belief that the actual workings of the world cannot be comprehended through meditative contemplation alone. I know that both you and Wilber are very much of the empirical mindset, but I think that you need to be clearer in the way that you talk about unity and plurality, time and eternity, in order to avoid some serious misconception about what kind of experience you think that meditation can provide.
Individual human beings only experience a small part of external things, and it is those small parts that are literally one with our own being. My consciousness includes small parts of the experience of many physical entities, and out of these many parts my consciousness constructs one whole world. That whole world is me. I and my world are not two—nondual. But I/my-world am only a small part of the whole world, or, more precisely, I am a synthesis of small aspects of the many perspectives that together constitute the whole world. Another way of saying this is that I am a perspective on the whole world. Any perspective on the whole world necessarily includes all of space and all of time in the abstract but not in the concrete. I.e., I experience space and time as infinite from my perspective, but I do not experience every other perspective that actually constitutes all of space and time. Every perspective is a perspective on one and the same whole world, but there are many perspectives, not just one. Thus, the world is both a multiplicity and a unity—many perspectives on one space-time continuum.
As you suggest, every perspective is relative—to every other perspective. There are various forms of relations among perspectives. Alfred North Whitehead argued that there are both internal and external relations among perspectives and both positive and negative prehensions by one perspective of other perspectives. Perspectives that are in the past relative to the present perspective are internal to the present perspective, and perspectives that are in the future relative to the present perspective are external to the present perspective. Also, Some parts of perspectives that are internal to/in the past of the present perspective are prehended positively, while other parts of perspectives that are internal to/in the past of the present perspective are prehended negatively. Thus I only positively prehend a very small part of the totality of world history, even of the world history that is internal to the present moment. And future moments in world history are altogether external to the present moment, though the present moment will be internal to those future moments.
It is the synthesis of many past perspectives in the unity of the present perspective that gives rise to the illusion of an enduring personal identity (ego). And it is the anticipation of the arising of future perspectives that will include the present perspective that introduces desire into the present moment. “I” am a series of momentary perspectives, and in each and every moment “I” construct “myself” out of the series of momentary perspectives and consider future perspectives that will include the present perspective as part of the “I” to be concerned about. While in a sense it is true that in each moment there is just that moment, it is also true that the past moments were real moments in their own right, and there will be future moments that will be real moments in their own right and that will include some part of the present moment.
I apologize if this is all a bit of jumble. I think that ultimately I’m agreeing with you: there is a transcendental perspective from which all is one, but it is also the case that any experience of the transcendental unity of the world is always within one of many relative perspectives. There is no way out of the everlasting process of perspectives within perspectives within perspectives that constitutes the ongoingness of time. Nirvana is within samsara. I think that it’s important to keep clear about the relationship between time and eternity. It is possible for any momentary, temporal perspective to experience eternity/nirvana, but it is important to note that the eternal that is being experienced in the momentary is the empty ground of pure potentiality of the universe—not the totality of all actual perspectives that constitute the world. The totality of actuality is never, never, never experienced by any actuality (not even God), because there is always another moment of actuality after that actuality and hence a new totality—which means that whatever was experienced before was not really the totality of actuality. What can be experienced by a momentary perspective is the totality of pure potentiality, which is empty of all actuality, and which is always and everywhere the same for all perspectives.
The most precise explanation that I’ve ever seen of all of this is in A.N. Whitehead’s ‘Process and Reality.’ This is a very opaque book, so I would recommend starting with Donald Sherburne’s ‘Key to Whitehead’s “Process and Reality”‘ and then reading PR along with Elizabeth Kraus’ ‘The Metaphysics of Experience: A Companion to Whitehead’s “Process and Reality”‘. You could also discuss it with Ken Wilber. I know from ‘Sex, Ecology, Spirituality’ that he’s familiar with Whitehead, though I find that he doesn’t make nearly enough use of him.
Frankly with due respect i feel we need not get too much obsessed with the ‘ranks’ . Its too easy to mistake the path for the goal. Peace.
Hi Bill,
I’m wondering if you have any thoughts to share about how the realization Saniel and Linda Bonder are living and transmitting (the “second birth”) relates, or doesn’t, to the 5 Ranks. I’ve been participating in the Waking Down in Mutuality work and communty (founded by Saniel) for five years now, and the Waking Down “map” of awakening and the 5 Ranks seem to me to have some similarities (for instance, stage 5 and the second birth are both realizations that include impersonal and the personal dimensions of identity simultaneously). I’d love to hear your thoughts on this subject, if you have any to share.
Thanks so much,
Sean
FROM BILL: Why not ask Saniel? He is familar with the Five Ranks, and certainly more familiar than I am with his own work (though he is a good friend and I love his work).
Thanks for the suggestion, Bill. I’ll do that.
~Sean
i think yes it probably was a rare event 2600-2000-1500-1200 even 100 years, and yes probably even 30 years ago for people to become “enlightened” or “awakened” or whatever you wish to call the state of mind some of us BEings are begining to feel grow within us, but if the path of the universe/life…us……is to evolve, then surely its what will happen (unless we manage to grow another arm) from our little perspective it could be another 1000 years before we notice considerable change but change is afoot i think we can all agree on that!
Bill,
I thought I would share this exchange I had with Carey Yost, as it might help to clarify my earlier comment:
Carey quoted this portion of my earlier comment: “While in a sense it is true that in each moment there is just that moment, it is also true that the past moments were real moments in their own right, and there will be future moments that will be real moments in their own right and that will include some part of the present moment.”
HE THEN WENT ON TO ASK:
“I realize I chose the part of your comment that was more contemplation than argument but it seemed to reveal something interesting.
“If there are a collection of moments as you say can we quantify them? How many are there and how are they subdivided? Is it possible there is only one?
“I apologize in advance for sounding like a new age or meditation proselytizer but here goes:
“The reason emphasis is given on the present moment is because it is the only thing we have direct experience of. In some cases there may be records however the viewing of these would still be an activity taking place in the present. In fact ALL past and future scenario “moments” and are simply memories and projections taking place in the present.
“Is it correct to conclude then that past and present have no existence outside of mind?
“What is the mind and is it even remotely qualified to discern reality given its limitations?”
TO WHICH I RESPONDED:
There are many moments of experience. Each one is a perspective on the entire space-time continuum.
Start here: Imagine person A and person B. Each person is a conscious perspective. Say that A and B are looking at each other. That means that A is a perspective on the whole space-time continuum, which involves a certain aspect of B; and B is a perspective on the whole space-time continuum, which involves a certain aspect of A. Each perspective includes only an aspect of the other. A includes only part of B, and B includes only part of A. This partial mutual inclusion is what makes both A and B parts of one and the same world, but the partiality of the inclusion is what makes A and B two distinct perspectives, not just one perspective. There is one world but many perspectives on it, perspectives that include only parts of the other perspectives, not the whole of other perspectives.
To verify that what I’m saying is correct, examine your consciousness and notice whether your consciousness includes anyone else’s complete consciousness. It doesn’t. At most your consciousness includes only a small slice of others’ consciousness. You see the world through your eyes. You don’t see the world as it appears through my eyes. My perspective is separate and distinct from yours, therefore they are two separate and distinct perspectives on one and the same world.
Time works the same way. Each moment in life is a perspective on the entire space-time continuum. John at time 2 is a perspective on John at time 1, which is a perspective on John at time 0, and so on. John t2 includes John t1, but John t1 did not include John t2, nor does John t2 include John t3 or John t4. (John t2, which includes most of John t1, also includes a small sliver of Carey t1, Bill t1, Kevin t1, etc., but only small slivers, which is what makes us all separate though interconnected people/perspectives.)
Each perspective is a moment and each moment is a perspective, all on one and the same space-time continuum. All perspective-moments are interconnected, i.e., each one includes parts of all of the others that are in its past, and each one will also be included as parts of all of those that will be in its future. But the multiplicity of perspective-moments is real. My consciousness is different from your consciousness. My consciousness now is different from my consciousness in the past and from my consciousness in the future.
This irreducible multiplicity of temporal and spatial relations is what leads inevitably from stage 3 to stage 4, as Bill describes it, the fall from grace. It appears in stage 3 that everything is ultimately one in a transcendent sense, but in stage 4 one realizes that multiplicity, temporality, and spatiality are quite real and unavoidable. It is only in stage 5 that one can integrate the transcendental unity with the pluralistic relativity. This is the balanced view of unity and multiplicity, time and eternity, that I was trying to help Bill clarify.
Let me respond directly to a few questions you asked:
“If there are a collection of moments as you say can we quantify them? How many are there and how are they subdivided? Is it possible there is only one?”
There are an infinite number of moments. There was no first moment, and there will be no last moment. Moments themselves are not subdivided. Each moment is a discrete entity, indivisible. As explained above, it is not possible that there is only one.
“In fact ALL past and future scenario ‘moments’ and are simply memories and projections taking place in the present.”
No, the reason that we experience memory is that there really were distinct, past moments, parts of which are included in the present moment, and the reason that we anticipate the future is that there really will be distinct, future moments that will include part of the present moment.
“Is it correct to conclude then that past and present have no existence outside of mind?”
There is nothing but mind. Mind is experience. Each moment of mind is a picture of the world, of the entire space-time continuum. The world is nothing but pictures within pictures within pictures, like pointing a live video camera at a television screen displaying its own image. The picture is just the TV within the TV within the TV, all the way down to infinity. That’s what the world is: minds within minds within minds, pictures within pictures within pictures of the whole space-time continuum, perspectives within perspectives within perspectives, moments within moments within moments—all the way down to infinity. And it just keeps recreating itself moment after moment after moment, for all eternity, without beginning or end, never exactly the same picture twice. There are many momentary perspectives on one world.
FROM BILL: And…every moment is absolutely necessary for every other moment..and every perspective is absolutely necessary for every other perspective. Without each, this universe could not, would not, be. The universe totally depends on THIS moment, and every other, and it depends on YOU, and depended upon you before you were born. A billion years ago, the universe depended upon the fact that YOU would be here, now, and a billion years from now it will depend upon the fact that you WERE here. And this goes for every other atom in the universe, too.
“A billion years ago, the universe depended upon the fact that YOU would be here, now, and a billion years from now it will depend upon the fact that you WERE here.”
Yes. It’s important, though, to remember that there’s an asymmetry involved in the relation between past and future. The past and the future depended and will depend upon the present in different senses. Moment-perspectives a billion years ago were what they were in part because of their anticipation of a being like me existing now, but what I am now was not fully determinate then. That is, there is a degree of freedom in each present moment relative to the past. What I am now was to some extent anticipated by past moments, but also to some extent indeterminate for those past moments, whereas for future moments what I am now will be fully determinate, a settled, stubborn matter of fact. For the moments preceding this moment, this moment was partially indeterminate, but for the moments succeeding this moment, this moment will be fully determinate.
The present involves an anticipation of the future in the mode of real potentiality, whereas the experience of the past by the present is in the mode of fully determinate, settled actuality. The future is not a settled actuality for the present; it is merely a real potentiality. Each present moment is always to some degree self-determining, though dependent upon the settled past that it synthesizes. Hence there is freedom in dependent origination.
Real potentiality is to be distinguished from pure potentiality, which is the primordial divine nature experienced in the low causal stage of development. Pure potentiality refers to the experience of the space-time continuum in a pure, empty state, unpopulated by any actual, particular, temporal perspectives. This pure potentiality can be experienced by particular temporal actualities, but those particular actualities remain temporal, relative perspectives. Hence the inevitable fall from stage 3 to stage 4.
FROM BILL: You’re getting a little bit too intellectual for me. Beware the mistaking of ideas for reality.
I just realized that I didn’t complete that last thought: “Real potentiality is to be distinguished from pure potentiality… Pure potentiality refers to the experience of the space-time continuum in a pure, empty state, unpopulated by any actual, particular, temporal perspectives.” Real potentiality, on the other hand, is what really might happen, given what has already actually occurred. Real potentiality is a synthesis of actuality and potentiality.
You are a wonderful teacher and I appreciate the time and energy you give to all of us.
Clarifying questions: When the human being/entity (to distinguish from “I” – ego) descends from the mountain and begins to integrate relative and transcendent, are you saying they take on/choose an ego perspective that causes them to experience personal karma? Or is this karma they experience the result of the sum total of everyone’s karma , the shared karma and the total suffering of every”one”?
Who is there to do the choosing to be human at that point?
Are you familiar with Dr. David Hawkins? I would love it if you could ever interview him in the context of these discussions.
You mention that most don’t ascend to the higher stages/states without a teacher/master. I would love if you could at a later post describe what the role of a teacher might look like. One-on-one coaching may be tough if the teacher is no longer in the body… or if their life so busy they don’t have time to work on a personal level or if you don’t yet have the resources to pay for their time.
Thanks again for presenting ‘pointers’ to these stages/states.
Bill and Genpo together make great teachers. Will you both bring Big Mind down to Sydney Australia!!! I know there would be many who would love to attend and can’t make it to the U.S. to do so.
This post and the previous one were just what I needed to read today. I have been meditating with Holosync for over 7 months now. I have experienced many minor well-being issues for the past 6 months including a recent bout of chicken pox with current post-viral fatigue. However, I accept this is the clearing out process of unconscious toxic limiting beliefs.
I am indeed very fortunate in that I have a spiritual master. The main reason I use Holosync is to strengthen my ability to receive her wisdom and in turn benefit humanity by completing an inspirational novel.
Thank you for writing these posts so clearly. I learned of a new deeper aspect of surrender and submission.
With gratitude and best wishes to you and the Centerpointe team
Hi Bill, I haven’t been to the Centerpointe Blog for a while, and I’m glad I happened by.
I’ve enjoyed your post. Recently, I read an article in Light Of Consciousness called ‘Param Para’ by Swami Amar Jyoti about the Chakras. It’s written in a question/answer style and explores the levels of consciousness associated with each Chakra. Swamiji describes the spiritual essence and paths associated with each Chakra, and offers insight into the awakenings humans experience when transiting each Chakra.
I noticed some parallels when reading your posts about the 5 Ranks of Tozan, and how one is able to ascend within each Rank.
I’m curious to learn what your thoughts are on what Swamiji describes about the 4th Chakra and how/where it might relate to the 5 Ranks of Tozan.
I’ll do my best to summarize the evolutionary stages of what Swamiji offers leading up to the 4th Chakra to ask my question…
First Chakra: the base
Second Chakra: animal nature
Third Chakra: human being
Fourth Chakra: we become a higher being, a statesman, a poet, social reformer, dancer, musician, but not of an ordinary type… someone who has a major effect on the human family that may influence a shift in human consciousness.
My question is, in the 5 Ranks of Tozan, how could one consider an individual who is able to illuminate humanity through their works, for example the impact Martin Luther King, Jr. had on the world? What rank might this individual be in while they’re ascending a rank?
My personal view of the 5 Ranks at this stage in my awareness is that I haven’t a clue where I am in it, and for now I’m content in not-knowing.
If I may share a brief story I meditated on recently…
The 10th century teacher Ti-tsang asked the wandering monk Fa-yen where he was going. Fa-yen answered that he was on a pilgrimage, going wherever his feet would carry him.
Ti-tsang asked, “What do you expect from pilgrimage?”
Fa-yen said, “I don’t know.”
Ti-tsang then replied, “Ah, not-knowing is most intimate.”
Thanks Bill,
Ilias
FROM BILL: All this wondering about “where you are” in the 5 Ranks is coming from the ego. Not only is it useless, if you are wondering you probably aren’t any further than the first rank, or perhaps “pre-first rank.”
Hi Bill, thank you very much for your feedback. Yes, I do agree after going back and reading about pre-stage one and stage one that I am able to visit the transcendent, but do not remain there all together. I understand what you mean about my ego’s projections of wondering of what is, or what is not which can be accompanied by self-doubt which are all distractions of a transcendent experience and an active ego.
In terms of being able to “relate” to a transcendent experience, I am a survivor of two-open heart surgeries, where a patient is induced “as deep as 100 levels of unconsciousness” as my first anesthesiologist put it.
In that state one’s mind is like a cold black void and there is nothing, and I am able to look into that void of memory at will. So I do agree that all this wondering is useless, because from that perspective of unconsciousness, the perceived mind of the physical world is “virtually” non-existent.
Ironically, that nameless state of unconsciousness is also very peaceful and I am quite often pulled back to that state of nothingness which sometimes relieves my plight into ego.
Your feedback has been very helpful because now it gives me an idea as to where I can focus to advance my practice to attain a fuller embodiment of the first rank.
Thank you BIll!
Ilias
an egg in each hand
alive moving thrilling
dreams and rain sing
answers like roses
i am a hummingbird
thankyou for the nectar
Just wondering…
You don’t talk much of the “ego” at this stage. Does the “ego” balloon truely pop at the 4th stage, or does transcending both the relative and transcendent involve the ego. Does the ego never truely go away?
FROM BILL: The ego is just your idea of who you are, nothing more. It is your conceptualization of yourself, and just as your conceptualization of Disneyland isn’t Disneyland, your concept of yourself isn’t you. What’s more, the ego, being an IDEA, can’t do anything. Can “3″ do anything? Can you wrap up a package with the equator? No, because both are ideas, abstractions. The ego never goes away because your mind automatically creates conceptualizations until you drop dead someday. What happens, if you evolve far enough, is that you see the ego for what it is (and I don’t mean intellectually understand, I mean experience). When this happens your “center” moves from being what you always thought it was–the separate self, the ego, the “me”–to being all the relationships between your “vehicle”–as the Buddhists call it (the organism, the body)–and everything else. You stop mistaking the map (your idea of “you”) for the territory. When I say that the ego balloon pops in the Fourth Rank I’m saying that cause and effect, which SEEMS to have been transcended in the Third Rank, comes back with a vengence. You have pushed away the relative, and you can only do that (or delude yourself into thinking you have done it) for so long.
I have just joined and read this first blog. Have no explanation but I feel at home. Thank you, Alice
I’ve had a glimpse of the third rank two years ago. I knew I was going to save the whole world with my unlimited love and carisma
. I suffered alot from compasion when I realised that I couldn’t help people who didn’t asked for help. I’ve been pondering about that ever since. Now I ain’t so much. Your description was spot on!
Thank you for telling me that was not the highest wiew of enlightement. I still wounder why a man at the third rank may loose his charisma mooving forward to the fifth rank? Any idea?
Be blessed.
FROM BILL: Read the post more carefully. The answer to your question is there.
I’m Oana Nastase, from Bucharest – Romania; I was supposed to attend your work-shop in New York last weekend (28-29 of June). Though I have the impression that my level of awareness is increasing, I was sufficiently unconscious to remember that my USA visa has expired. Fact is that I missed your work shop and the plane ticket though they were both paid long time in advance.
I have written to Centerpoint to kindly request another seminar/work shop registration, on same already paid fee. I was request to write to you and subscribe to this blog, so here I am.
Moreover and surpassing the logistic issues, I have some questions, though I think they are rhetoric (I started to learn that the answer is to be found in the question itself): I started to be interested and practice self development programs in the last 8 years. Of course, I had many breakthroughs as I had many breakdowns; Buddhism and Zen is rather something I read than I train myself into. I have been attending to the last workshop of Genpo Roshi in Barcelona, this year at the end of May (it was fantastic, very efficient, easy, clear, simple to “get” it, easy to assimilate it). Having said this, my lately concern is: is the spiritual development direct proportional or correlated with the amount of suffering I experience? Step by step I experience more awareness, more compassion, less attachment to things, social status or given rules; I understand all kind of human behavior, I find myself able to generate love consciously, as a way of being not as a condition to something or somebody; and yet, I experience a deeper suffering, a more emotional way of being, my life experience has a larger amplitude up – is higher , down-is deeper; I understand from your blog that this is a life time learning-experiencing-development process; what I wonder is: entering the path of wisdom is walking on my life path lonelier? “Acceptance” makes “needing” vanish; “giving up attachment” makes relations able to exist from the distance; somehow, every step I make farther, surpassing my own mind and hearth limits, I position myself outside most people I know preoccupations, I find myself in a no men’s land; what I find myself into is either a spiritual love-acceptance-peaceful state of mind or a sad-scared-lonely one: it is a new “black and white” game, it is a new set of emotions. And I’m not looking to win or avoid losing (in my beginner level)… I’m looking to share my life and myself with persons who are interested into “being human” and “getting conscious” process.
…Being aware of my human nature: should I give up my need of relative human experience, relative couple relation? Can I live for real with people interested to remain in a ego-centered, unaware stage of life? Once one is scratching the surface of “enlightenment” there is no way back, just forward and most likely alone?
Bill,
One thing I don’t get is how can someone really experience being “birthless and deathless” when you can only experience it while you’re awake i.e. you don’t experience anything while you’re sleeping or if you fell unconscious? Surely this means that Big Mind depends on a human mind in the waking state to manifest?
So “presence” only exists in an alive person who’s not in the sleeping state, and so “dies” as far as we’re concerned when we fall asleep / get knocked out / die?
Richard
FROM BILL: Not at all. An awakened person is aware during sleep. Maharishi used to call it “body asleep, mind awake.” This is misleading to a degree, though, because he didn’t mean that you are thinking. He meant that you are pure awareness–awareness without content–even while asleep.
When Budhhists use the term “unborn” or “undying” they aren’t referring to your body being born or dying. They are referring to what they call the emptiness of everything, the fact that everything depends upon everything else and therefore has no qualities, no existence, by itself. This is a rather deep philosophical question, since it refers to something beyond duality and therefore cannot be describe using language. I certainly don’t have time here to take a shot at explaining, as best as can be done, what it means. Perhaps I will in a future post.
I’d like to thank you for these tools outlined in your blog post, and what you’re providing with your series regarding “mastering the power of now”. As a result of my participating in these programs I have a much better idea of where I’m at regarding this stuff which, up until now, I’ve been trying to “figure out” all on my own and getting frustrated over the fact that I couldn’t create something to explain the unexplainable. It seems that with what you provide I can experience what is and then put a framework with it, rather than trying to find the right framework into which I might fit all of experience; I didn’t get that the experience of life, rather than the framework into which life should be stuffed into, is the crucial bit.
I personally don’t believe that we need any of this stuff to become enlightened or, in other words, to fully experience life for what it is and how much we have to offer with respect to it. I find now that I can read or listen to your blog posts and get a better idea of where I’m at, and this is very reassuring because there is a sort of reference point to compare what I’m experiencing against, however I’m no longer looking for that certain state or stage or rank which will make the experience complete. Now that I have this information I can more readily interpret my experience and share it with others, and it’s fun to all of a sudden be in an experience and have something come up from your blog posts; it’s as if all of a sudden I go “ahah, I’m right on with my experience, and Bill’s right on, and I feel so wonderful, and what’s next” and there’s no questioning whether or not it’s right because it just “is”. This is very difficult to explain to someone who doesn’t get it–I wouldn’t have understood it when I was (and still am at times) there–however the reassurance that such is possible is very encouraging, and when you do get it you’ll want to smack yourself upside the head and go “but this is what it’s been all along” and then the only thing to do is have a good laugh; isn’t that what a Zen master said once (I surely know nothing about such masters)?
Once again I’d like to say how much I appreciate what you’re doing with your blog and other related work, because you’re doing so much for us personally and for the community at large. I believe that what you and others are doing is one of the key turning-points which will bring about a new-age of wisdom and sharing, and I believe that such work is just what this world needs if we’re going to bring the chaos around us back into a balanced and harmonic state. Not many people are sharing this type of information–information which helps you understand your own life from your own creative potential–and what you’re doing to get this into the hands of as many seakers as you can is simply incredible! And what’s more the fact that you’re giving it away, as rightly such charitable work should be given, is a further testament for your willingness to help us all and a great example of where we’re headed. I look forward to where we go from here, and I can’t wait for the next shift. Until then, please be well.
PS: I really do hear what you’re seeing, and it’s awesome; who ever thought I could hear so much from silence? With the big mind process there really is no silence anymore, but I digress for now. You might want to edit this last part…
Hi Bill,
I’m writing in an attempt to own up to some harsh words I posted about a week ago. It was in response to my post above when I received a bruised ego from your reply to my first post. Of course my second post was moderated and wasn’t allowed on the blog.
First, I’d like to thank you for replying to my first post at all because I know you’re very busy and you don’t have the time to reply to everyone’s post. I view that now as a direct contact in that you were helping me, but I went unconscious and wasn’t open to your help at the time. I am very grateful for your help because the reality is that you were right on about my shadow stuff regarding money and success, authority figures, and the issue I have with titles. It seems as they say in Zen… I’m riding the razor’s edge and you were right there to guide me.
So I want to apologize to you with my heart felt appreciation. I consider you to be a mentor indirectly since we’ve never met or spoken person to person. I sincerely feel love for you and the Centerpointe team, especially Nancy who I’ve talked to a few times.
I’m just now reading the last chapter of Eckhart Tolle’s The Power Of Now, and in a sense I am surrending to this moment. Yes, I went out and bought his book and while I was at the book store I also bought Genpo’s Big Mind/Big Heart, which I’m about to begin in the next day or two.
It was kind of funny, because I was actually looking for a book on the Five Ranks Of Tozan. I asked one of the clerks in the book store and they searched their data base and nothing came up. So as I set off to search in the Zen/Buddhism section, I turned the corner around one the oak bookshelves, and there was Genpo’s face staring right at me.
In the past week a door has been opening for me which has been a long time coming, and I have you to thank for it in part.
That’s all, I’m going to go now and feel my humility fully.
Thank you teacher.
With Love,
Lewi
FROM BILL:
Apology accepted and appreciated. No problem. We all have shadow stuff, and if we accepted it when it was first pointed out, it wouldn’t be shadow stuff. There really isn’t anything written about the Five Ranks of Tozan that is any good, or comprehensible. This is why I have been so blown away by Genpo Roshi’s teaching of it–I really meant it when I said that you can’t get this anywhere else, from anyone else. What you find on the internet makes you say, “Huh? What?” Genpo tells me that those who know (which isn’t very many) leave out the most important stuff, and most who have written about it don’t know what they are talking about.
Excellent. This is by far the best explanation of nonduality I have seen from you, Bill. Very helpful.
Anthony
I find your article and Holosync very helpful in dealing with the emotions surrounding the war in Iraq. While I am not there, I feel the enormous weight of suffering the current US administration has created in Iraq. It is difficult to sort out the relative peace around me and the mental images I have about the American soldiers there and the innocent Iraqi civilians who have been killed by the 100s of thousands and injured in the millions. Holosync has enabled me to be active in striving for peace while not succumbing to the sadness and horror of what has happened over there due to this administration’s actions. It is helpful to stay active and not give in to depression or hopelessness and Holosync helps accomplish this.
Dear Bill
Your post is very interesting. I try to put it in terms of my own experience and to be honest, I don’t know what rank I am at, it’s hard to judge. I do know though that the a year on now in Holosync, I seem to have fallen off the Holosync “high”… I see things differently and decision I make about life are very different, before I thought life happened to me, now I know I have a consious choice in each part of it and it goes on regardless of my choice to participate or not in that moment.
I do struggle with detachment though, it would seem to me that to be detached as to not feel so much suffereing, you would need to be very inward focused, all about self? Perhaps it is about balance? I know I am my own worst enemy now when it comes to suffering, because I attach and want to give so much of myself and also help others, I am at a loss how to change that, where do I focus, if it is within, does that make me selfish? Detach to me kind of means not care so much, not give so much and my question to you would be, how do you do that? How does the thinking need to change?
Not sure if this makes any sense but look forward to your response.
Thanks for sharing.
Kylie
Hi Bill,
Another very interesting information. This fourth rank business makes things very clear to me. So far I lacked that info which I think to be crucial for anybody working on him or herself. Not knowing about it might well ruin the whole process. Thank you so much!
Nora
Bill, This was a very important summary of what enlightenment should mean to everyone. I believe that every human that lives on this planet has their own cross to bear. The Karma of cause and effect is put there in front of us for a reason it is so important to become aware it. How you sift through these problems that you create for yourself is the important part of letting go. You find yourself in another level of getting to the enlightened stage and then it gets so much easier as you go through the cause and effect. As you become much more aware of who you are all the fear of the unknown leaves you. It is like stepping through a doorway into darkness and not caring about what lies ahead of you.
when you complete the programme (Holysync) do you have to do any maintenance to maintain the effect? Will the effect last forever.?
many thanks.
Kathleen
I remember my old TM teachings where the higher stages of “God Consciousness” and then “Unity Consciousness” were revealed beyond the primary “Cosmic Consciousness.” Then, there were intimations of a “Brahman Consciousness” above all that. But I can’t exactly trace an exact correspondance of all of them with the 5 stages discussed here.
In Buddhism, I think the 5th stage would traditionally be turning from simply enjoying Nirvana to instead become a compassionate Bodhisattva. My guess is that this stage traditionally always involved some religious/devotional/Diety aspects.
There are some buddhist rituals to “purify karma” – perhaps to circumvent the “cause and effect” suffering due in this life. There is also a broader application of “Tantra” in where you turn everyday desires, tasks and actions (like dishwashing, NOT just sex!) to a purifying, compassionate or devotional aspect.
Bill,
I have read several books on Zen and I must say that you have a remarkable way of explaining and vulgarizing these complex concepts.
Very inspiring and clarifying.
Thank you