Loe raamatut: «Spiritual Practice. Philosophical Reflection»

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ISBN 978-5-0064-9520-3

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Preface to the 2nd English edition

The author’s translation of the books from Russian into English was made a long time ago in 2009—2013 when I was in Bali for publication on the American print-to-order service. Then the book appeared on the Amazon world trade network among millions of books on this topic.

The very idea of the book is connected with my research interests as a philosopher and orientalist, which extend to both theoretical and practical aspects of Oriental culture.

Unsurprisingly, the original Russian edition was much more successful in Russia itself. The very first Russian editions was published in the LitRes publishing house in Moscow although I lived and worked abroad, communicating exclusively in English.

Over the years, my English skills improved, especially since I professionally worked on translations from English into Russian, which was my earnings in those years, and subsequently became the basis for admission to the Russian Translators’ Union.

Preparing the second English edition through the Russian Ridero system, of course, it would be worthwhile to make a new translation of this book. However, due to the lack of time and the large number of new projects, I leave everything as it was, correcting only few obvious mistakes.

I hope that the sophisticated reader will forgive the imperfection of my early translations, paying more attention to the content that concerns eternal questions, and perhaps enjoy the specifics of the Russian mentality when transferring knowledge from East to West.

Maria Nikolaeva
St. Petersburg, 2024

Self-Being Strategy. Research Methodology

Foreword

Reading Maria Nikolaeva’s book came actually as a quite pleasant surprise to me. The title of the book led me to expect just another book on meditation and the discovery of one’s self; and, truth be told, there are many of those in print! Fortunately, I was wrong! This book is an easy-to-understand guide to the exploration of one’s self in conjunction with space, time and the cosmic scene. It is a roadmap that imprints not only the paths of self-awareness but also describes the provisions one must carry on the way. I have read phrases such as “one road many ways,” “one way many roads,” etc. In the case however of this particular book, the Author proves both sentences true provided that the correct conditions concur.

The problems of self-awareness and the discovery of one’s true self and as a result, of one’s true volition, have been engaging the mind of man for many centuries and continue still to be a research subject of substance. Starting with Socrates’ exhortation “Know thyself,” the mantle is taken up by the Gnostics, who first pointed out in a systematic way and with a religious structure the fact of the fallacy of appearances when compared to the truth of being. The illusive world of the Creator (“Demiurge”) of the Gnostics differs very little from the Maya, the illusive reality of Hinduism. The Hindus in the authentic “Sanathana Dharma,” the Vedas and their books of knowledge, wherein they have concerned themselves with a multitude of issues, point out the inability of human beings to understand the nature of the Divine as well as their own limitations to perceive the natural reality which surrounds them. This inability to understand the nature of the Divine is also pointed out by Origen, who while walking on the beach with a student proceeded to ask him to count the grains of sand. The student by confessing his inability to do so, received the following answer: If you are incapable of investigating something as finite as a beach how dare you wish to perceive the nature of infinity? What one perceives is a dreamy state, Maya, which imposes an illusory perception of reality. This illusory perception of reality results in an equally illusory perception of oneself, of what one is, where one goes and what one really wants. Modern science confirms that man’s tools of perception of reality have their own limitations. Our senses collect but a fragment of the reality surrounding us and codify it in a way suitable for us to perceive it. From the moment we accept that the Universe is temporary and relative and that we perceive it with ineffective means, it is clear that on a level of consciousness we live in a micro-universe within another Universe. The attempt to break through the walls of the virtual universe we perceive, to break through the Matrix —if I may use the modern terminology for Maya— is clearly to be made using supersensory means, such as those possessed by one’s spirit, one’s higher self, which by its own nature participates in both realities, the Matrix as well as the cosmic truth. One such tool, which has been proven effective through the ages, is meditation.

This book presents a roadmap that guides us to meditation. This is achieved using the Hindu tradition as a point of reference, and yet in an non-dogmatic way, i.e. without imposing authority but with the provision of such means that shall assist the reader to discover his or her own way, without stumbling into obstacles. The references in the book make the analogy between the eastern meditation and the orthodox tradition of anchorites, and the correspondence of yogis to the Christian orthodox “holy fools.” For them the common ground is their distancing from the matrix of material perception. Anyone seriously interested in meditation and wanting to be informed in a correct, objective, impartial and nonsectarian way, has acquired the right book. For me it has been a pleasure to read the book and an honour to meet the author.

Athanassios Theodorou
Greece, 2015

*Athanassios Theodorou is Bachelor of Arts in Law (National University of Athens), Master of Arts in Philosophy with a focus on the history of religions (University of Sorbonne, Paris), Practicing law in Athens, Greece.

Expert Feedback

In a very interesting way, through her personal experience and knowledge, Maria Nikolaeva describes the interaction and methodology of several practices to achieve self-realization into Reality- Samádhi, Nirvana or Satori. Personally, through my experience as a Yoga Instructor, I agree to interact multiple paths to attain Enlightment. What really matters is the goal; the way to attain it is a personal choice. As I often say to my students: “your mind is your guru, so follow your Inner Voice.”

Through this book, readers will find an intelligent and profound explanation to the development of their Inner Consciousness.

My sincere congratulations for this wonderful book that transmits the essence of rich experience and knowledge by Maria Nikolaeva (Atma Ananda).

Namaste.

Lina Gonçalves
Portugal, 2015

* Lina Gonçalves is Yoga Samkhya Instructor, Reiki Master and Master of Magnified Healing in Lisbon, Portugal

Introduction to Reality

Spiritual practice is the self-being strategy. Historically, we see different options for development in 4 particular situations: self-realized persons 1) in a tradition 2) outside of all traditions; not self-realized people 3) among devotees 4) atheists. It is not important, what is the tradition or who is the guru. The only important thing is unity with Reality itself. Devotion (bhakti) or religious devotedness is just one of the options to open true Reality; that means in the path of traditional realization, surrending dominates self-investigation. Actuality is the direct way to Reality; that means there is nobody else anymore except of one’s own Self, who would open Reality itself, in pure unblocked being-consciousness-bliss (sat-chit-ananda in Sanskrit). There are no guides or intermediates. You know or you do not know, other people’s knowledge and/or experience are irrelevant. Reality is factually not changing. If you choose the traditional way to realization, at the end you will need to do the same action which could be done at the very beginning – to see Reality as it is. Sooner or later you have to face Reality without any intermediary, and the most important question is if you will be able to recognize Reality as your own Self; otherwise you will still keep an “ideal of Reality’ which you got from your tradition or your gurus. Paradoxically, whether you have a guru or not, your self-dependence has one and the same degree.

Usually people think that Eastern traditions are based on the line “teacher – disciple” where one can get knowledge. There is even such opinion that self-realization is not possible without guru. However this statement becomes contradictory if you will study comparative Eastern traditions. For example, the original form of Buddhism (Hinayana, or Theravada) supposes enlightenment by your own efforts only; while Zen tradition (Mahayana) converts this suggestion into extreme judgment: “If you meet the Buddha, kill him!” A similar position in Western self-awareness was developed by the ancient Greek philosopher Socrates. He rejected initiation into the mysteries, but later Pyphia of the main temple declared that namely, he was the wisest among men! Modern people are not able to follow a guru thanks to self-confidence, and this quality really finds the best soil for their growing in the East. Yet we do not ask to reject traditional knowledge, because people have different dispositions or tendencies. We have to learn how to use them without losing our own base in Self. Another example from Theravada Buddhism: enlightenment is your personal achievement; and it developed many practical techniques how to do it!

To be in the state of presence means to understand the cultural variety in a society. Now actually in any country, a person exists in a multicultural space where Christian churches, Hindu temples, Buddhist pagodas, and Muslim mosques are built closely while people study Yoga, Tai-Chi, Reiki etc. and all them are mixed in families and in a society. Each spiritual tradition has its own theoretical system for the interpretation and description of the world and a practical strategy for self-realization or liberation from the world. Each person follows his own system, working out strategies for interaction with other people. All systems are dualistic: “this or that’; while strategy is algorithmic: “if – that’. A system has a fixed structure, while strategy is dynamic, we have to choose from moment to moment. Obviously, now most people are interested in a strategy even without studying or constructing a system. In the cyber era it is common to use algorisms practically. Spirituality has united with practice in the notion of “spiritual practice’ in East separated from practical philosophy of “will and good’ in West. We try to restore balance between understanding and activity, abstracting a common “self-being strategy’ for reflection of multiple structures and orientation in a complex cultural space which you cannot already escape. Borders of cultural traditions become more transparent being penetrated by illumination of all-embracive true Reality.

You know, it is important HOW to do – not WHAT to do; no matter, what cultural traditions appear in the field of our activity or where we are ourselves. It is essential to develop main parameters for personal reflection which are characteristic for all systems. At the same time, we need to develop a strategy that can be used with any traditional techniques in order to work with the necessary aspects in a surrounding world. Anyway, being present, you always understand the current situation in a particular way as a starting point. Usually, at the beginning you may have a particular goal which can be achieved step by step, and you can create some program for your activity (probably, also one for the rest of your life). However, when you become closer to your goal, your understanding becomes clear, and your vision of the goal becomes more direct too. Then we see what is the next step we can make in our new presence. A guru can help you but your self-confidence is more valuable. If you understand something by your own, nobody will take it from you. But if a guru handles everything, you can decide nothing – and you cannot learn how to choose for yourself. I remind the example of Siddhartha in German Hesse’s novel: meeting alive the Buddha, he recognized Him as a realized person. But he continued his own way until he reached self-realization by his own efforts.

We could give many similar examples but the essence is the same: a saint can be recognized by a saint only. Even if you accept somebody as your guru, namely YOU are responsible for your choice – not him. Anyway, this is the act of surrendering which has no guarantee, at least at the conscious level, because your surrendering is based on the intuition that you will be guided. You believe in him due to your own feeling or someone’s recommendation or his position in tradition. At this moment you also deal with the presence and the personal choice of your ultimate goal. You feel that the person is similar to your ideal of self-realization, and if you follow him you will become like him. Sure, it works. You can put responsibility on your guru for the further process of self-realization. But then again – this is YOUR choice. So, you will be responsible if you will reach the goal or not. There are pluses and minuses in any case. If you choose a real master, you will get many practical instructions about WHAT to do in order to see Reality without wasting time in research; maybe you will get initiated to experience HOW to see Reality without your own efforts (shaktipat etc.) jumping into an advanced state. However, even if your guru is “real’ he will decide for you everything and you cannot develop your own buddhi (ability to discriminate between real and unreal) but always use his ready-made knowledge. For instance, in Vajrayana you will rebuild your whole structure and become recognized as a Lama. But nobody can promise that you will become Buddha. This is your own chance.

Nevertheless, we must be aware that looking for Reality without any intermediate is not always respected by people. Most traditions have a line of gurus with “rules of recognizance’ while self-development can be based only on your own “insights of recognizance’… Remember how many saints started in this way only to be respected at the end. Ramakrishna was treated as “mad man’; Ramana Maharshi was beaten with stones and became an object of jokes; Sri Aurobindo was proclaimed by his shot-time guru as “embodiment of evil’; Satya Sai has million devotees while millions laugh at him as a charlatan. I am giving extreme examples but in the case of an “ordinary person’ who decided for himself – to be or not to be a disciple of this or that guru – nobody will care to understand him. Even worldwide religions fight in the same way: Christians often call Buddhism as Satanism etc. So, the choice is a private deal. Finally, it can end without result, and such person would have not attained anymore than his own experience which nevertheless can be a step for further self-development.

I. Timing and Spacing

It is a sort of philosophical banality that all our sensual experience is limited by two formal structures of perception – time and space. From the Eastern point of view we have a lot of time because of the theory of reincarnation: people can wait for many lives to do something good or to improve the present life. From the Western point of view, we always have lack of time for the spiritual experience, because we are so occupied by all forms of business, while our eternal consciousness, (since in the Christian tradition our soul is eternal) does not need to do anything for our self-realization, and keeps us in complete spiritual stagnation. While traveling many years in Asia doing my cultural research the notion of “timing’ was very useful. Timing is a complex notion that includes many perspectives: “a period’ (for a particular activity), “set’ (chosen chain of actions), “synchronism’ (harmonization of our actions with going on events or social programs), “success’ (sudden connection of personally reaching a goal with a common benefit for others), “fate’ (accident, mystical meeting etc.), “end’ (death as the final point of a biological life or of any form of physical process). So, timing is time as such in its flowing, conscious of time current, subjective feeling of changing. To be in proper time in proper place (space) – means to get everything in proper order. This is active intuition of actual chance, or just psychological ability to be “here and now’. Usually, you can find many cultural descriptions and parallels.

Among philosophical systems, “time’ as pure form of sensual experience was exposed very clearly and specific in “Criticism’ by Kant; and “time’ as an active form containing data of perception – in “Phenomenology’ by Husserl. However, spiritual practitioners are less interested in time structure in the world. They are intending to become aware of aggregates as all periods in historical time inclusive in one consciousness. This is the ideal of knowing about all cosmic events and human destinies (like in astrology and the low of karma), not only just the form but also the content of each process. Such goal changes the acceptance of time from the very start of their way in a spiritual practice. That is why the lives of saints are full of mystic happenings during their development even before achievement of self-realization. Their position according to timing is replaced by staying in “volume consciousness’ or eternity (as you can see in the “Volume Way’ chapter). While the volume is not all-embracive in the beginning, this is already principally another strategy of life. Conscious timing will be described in the following chapter about “tuning the rhythm’ when we will understand the role of the subject in the situation. Here we are dealing with objective characteristics of the world as time-space matrix: situation, dynamism, and periods.

Situation as it is

The notion of “timing’ is the most important for any present situation even if this is just routine work. Needless to say about spiritual practice, where time is hold under conscious control. I used the notion of “timing’ since I met one Western sannyasi (a type of monk) who was traveling in Asia for 16 years. We did not keep in touch by phone or e-mail but often “accidentally’ met in three different countries (Thailand, Laos, China), and everyone knows how many such a mystic meetings happens during traveling. Discussing next tracks he often reminded me about “timing’ to decide how long to stay in this or that country: waiting for spring or using visa-run. Once I was shocked in the street when a motorcyclist crushed and died just at my feet. He run to the cross-street, felt as in a movie, turned two-three times and fallen apart. His body tried to stand up while his broken head pulled him down. After some convulsions he died. In the evening I told the incident to my friend. He answered just with one word: “Timing!” But in a few minutes of silence he added: “Useful to observe’. Well, it is useful in any situation to see: how “time starts’ and how “time ends’. You are ready or not; win or lose – that is all. You can make one decision but you never know what will happen. It is only “timing’.

Timing is good to travel for some period since (slowly and surely) you can develop strong feeling of unity with the dimensions of time-space, where everything is inter-correlated and inter-connected. You do not need to worry about the future, but it makes sense to analyze incoming events and trace your own trajectory of movement. Mastering “timing’ gives a flexible strategy for your planning: you have an algorithm of actions, which can be immediately changed at any moment if you get new information about better chances or possible danger and obstacles. A similar strategy is needed in a spiritual practice: by choosing a particular practice, you arrange everything around its performing, and it will become a central part of your whole activity. But if you see signs of something wrong in the practice, meet a better instructor or find another experience – you must be ready to coordinate everything according to the new situation. Do not just leave your started practice behind, but complete a transfer from previous actions to the new ones. Transaction is a working zone because the whole of life as such is a transaction – from nothing to being, from darkness to light, from death to life. Any situation includes everything: timing, knowledge, and realization.