Core Text
The way the Masters of old discovered the Practice of Clear Light was by studying what a dream is. They found that the waking-state, the dream-state, and the deep-sleep-state are of the same essence as the , and yet we experience them as separate. This split is a great maintainer of ignorance. The impulse to bring transcend this very limitation is thus a sacred spark.
Into the Clear Light
The Practice of Clear Light takes us on a journey into the Clear Light. It takes us through the gross mind, the subtle mind, and the very subtle mind (or in other words; the gross sphere, the subtle sphere, and the very subtle sphere — sphere meaning here the domain to which the particular mind relater). It takes us into the Clear Light.
The practice is using the process of falling asleep, of dreaming, and of deep sleep to examine and surrender everything that is not the Straight Flight of the Arrow. For us to be able to being this practice, we first must have the genuine intention to do so, and second we must receive the teaching or the instruction of the Practice of Clear Light, which is simply – ‘Go straight like an Arrow into the Clear Light!’ Only when these two conditions meet, can the Arrow be truly born.
The Clear Light is Awareness itself. Of course, Awareness has been there all throughout the practice, and before, and after etc. That’s why when we “arrive in the Clear Light”, we realize we have never truly moved — we realize that all along our true identity has been Awareness itself, and the journey was a wonderful illusion. Arriving at the Clear Light we arrive where we began, but now we stand naked without distortion – the nature of ourselves and of our experience Shines Clearly.
Clear Light and the Gross Mind
1.
The gross mind is that, which we encounter first when practicing Clear Light. We encounter it, and moreover we encounter it in its immediate state. In other words — however it is in that moment. There can be no judgment of it in order for us to succeed in the practice. It must be fully accepted as it is. When that full acceptance takes place – that is, when we are present with the gross mind, we can allow it to fall asleep without loosing the thread of the practice.
We will, at this point, go through all the unique states and feelings associated with the gross mind falling asleep. Again, if we manage to do that with full acceptance, it simply and naturally falls asleep. And we continue on with the practice.
That is the first stage that each practitioner of Clear Light must master.
2.
As we are putting the gross mind to sleep, different parts of the gross human system go offline one after another.
Speaking in terms of the body, we can say that it falls asleep starting with its lowest parts and working its way up to its highest ones.
Speaking in terms of the psyche, we can say that it falls asleep starting with its most instinctual parts and working its way up to its most abstract ones.
At the peak of this climb — that is right when the gross mind is about to fall asleep completely — consciousness itself, i.e. that which is conscious of something, leaves the gross sphere (going higher up), and all that remains is Mirror-Like Awareness.
This is how the gross mind falls asleep.
3.
We have to become so familiar with the gross mind and with the process of it falling asleep. If we keep the thread of the practice while the gross mind is falling asleep, we give ourselves the chance to discover the exact places, where we still fool ourselves into NOT practicing and thus where we “fall asleep along with the gross mind”. Because, make no mistake! The Practice of Clear Light — that is, the falling asleep and sleeping while remaining fully present and aware — is the natural way of things. Anything else is a lie.
