A stairway I would often climb up to one of the hills of Varshana in Northern India
back in the days not so long ago; Varshana is one of my favorite spots in the Vraja area.
A befitting follow-up to yesterday's off-beat blog on
Enter Planet Zorgotron, I am sharing the notes I sent to a friend who wrote in, asking for my angle on
The Manual of Steve Bohlert (PDF) of
Universalist Radha-Krishnaism fame for entering the utopian world of Radha-Krishna featured extensively in the writings of medieval Gaudiya Vaishnava mystics. Subtitled
"Create yourself in an idealized identity", Steve looks at meditational methods for entering a particular alternative dimension from a fresh and pleasantly fluid angle.
I have myself been an
intense student and practitioner of the
meditative method up until late 2007, when I made the call to expand my inner domain from what I felt was a rather restrictive model for an ultimate reality presented by the orthodox tradition. While holding a
great deal of fascination, it had become too anthropomorphic for my taste. Feeling a need to travel
deeper into transhuman existence from the abodes of personal divinities, I embarked on a
journey of my own through the Buddhist world and beyond, leaving behind the specifics of the utopian otherworld favored by the esoteric Bengali Vaishnavite tradition.
Steve is definitely onto something there with his meditational approach, contra the orthodox and often stiff methods found among the traditional teachers in India, as they often brush aside the
mechanistic aspect of the entire process in favor of counting on descending grace and automatic revelation alone. I find it hard to believe that this was the sole intention of the medieval authors, who spent much of their time in
methodically writing
detailed volumes of thought, and whose
systematic writings provide a rich philosophical and theological framework for a meticulous student with a broad understanding.
From a quick read of his short manual, it's evident Steve has a good grasp on the aspects of mental fluidity and the individual's input as crucial factors in
entering new dimensions of experience and interaction.. He further seeks to give this idealized world a more universal context, which I find commendable — even while he retains it in the general
religious framework of the tradition, which I am not that big on as I find it too narrow and particular for an ultimate
existential frame of reference.
Reality is
inherently subjective, and more so in the domain of individual mind and consciousness. If you have a wish for entering alternative worlds and dimensions by meditational effort, whether it's the
Radha-Krishna department or any other transhuman world, you will need to develop your skills of concentration, spatial visualization, projection, and psychological insight to a great degree. Such skills are highly useful in any field of endeavor, and as such "
in this endeavor there is no loss or diminution"; they are in fact something I intend to write about in more detail myself when I get an opening to put more of my head's contents on cyberpaper.
The bottom line as I see it is that if you want to have any level of certainty over your internal evolution, you will need to understand
how things function, over and above the grace factor that religions frequently depend upon as the sole saving factor and means of spiritual evolution. If god gave us methods for attaining his dimension, I'm certain he also intended for us to understand how his methods work as a precursor to attaining the level of existence he inhabits, in particular in preparing to share of his (or rather its) level of multi-dimensional and all-encompassing consciousness.
