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APPLICATION
THE NOTION OF GROWTH
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a vague memory remaining. The time spent on this level lasts only seconds.
3 - In the third stage (misra) understanding and delusion
exist simultaneously in mixed form. We experience this as an ambivalent state where we have neither the intention to separate ourselves from delusion and error to regain the clear understanding of the fourth stage, nor the inclination to let go of clear understanding to move back to the familiar hypnotic environment of level one. As soon as this equilibrium is disturbed and a tendency towards clear understanding or delusion is started, we leave this stage either in the direction of the fourth gunasthana (avirata-samyaktva) or towards the second (sasadana).
The third level can only be reached from the fourth level. The maximum duration of stay is limited to 48 minutes.
The third stage has enormous significance for obtaining the clear understanding of the fourth stage. Here an important process takes place that stabilizes our access to the fourth stage.
Many of those dwelling mainly in the first stage experience flashes of insight into the fourth stage. This is usually a fleeting sensation that feels like a brief, but intense awakening from some long and almost hypnotic 'waking dream'. The experience is generally regarded as highly agreeable and is almost always accompanied by flash-backs to similarly fleeting states we experienced before. Many perceive these brief insights in regular in
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