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APPLICATION
14 STAGES OF DEVELOPMENT
189
of life. We live in a dense emotional cocoon we are hardly ever aware of. Though friends sometimes alert us to this condition, we have no idea how to get out of this almost hypnotic state. None of the goals we pursue on this level leads systematically to the experience of higher stages.
It is a state of delusion and flawed ideas how the world functions. All convictions, belief systems, viewpoints and opinions we found our life on retain us on this level - irrespective if we acquired them by our own efforts or accepted them from others. Even when presented with truth, we either are incapable of recognizing it or take it for false.
We certainly can find our way out of this stage. Yet for this we need to introduce new components into our life that open opportunities for growth. Otherwise it lasts eternally.
When we leave this stage (even if only for brief moments of insights), we proceed directly to the fourth stage (aviratasamyaktva) without experiencing gunasthana two and three.
2 - The second gunasthana (sasadana) is an interim level we transit
while falling from the third to the first stage. In this second stage delusion and error begin to take hold on us. The clear understanding we still could have regained in the third stage is already lost with only a vague memory remaining. The time spent
on this level lasts only seconds. 3 - In the third stage (misra) clear understanding and delusion exist
simultaneously in mixed form. We experience this as an ambivalent state. We neither want to separate us from delusion and er
1 All components necessary for this process already exist within us and
in our immediate environment. We only need to recognize them, direct our attention towards them and then activate them for our
growth.
'ATTRACTION TO KARMA', commentary to Sutra 12 describes what conditions enable the spontaneous experience of more advanced stages of development.
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