Notion of Growth

Author(s): Hermann Kuhn
Publisher: Crosswind Publishing Germany

Page 77

Hermann Kuhn
our notion of growth will be available in less fleeting form.
- Awareness of pramana's mechanisms and qualities (sadhana) - rises within us in the same degree we become familiar with this type of perception.
To develop pramana, we need to eliminate all ideas, concepts and expectations that have nothing to do with the experience itself. This means to discard e.g. the expectation that the rising of higher states of consciousness should always be accompanied by visions of supernatural light, massive expansions of space, ecstasy etc.29
Clarity about the functioning and features of our experiences arises when we gain a feeling, a sense of their more subtle aspects. Even if we are not used to direct our
29 Experiences of this kind are certainly possible but usually occur
only from the sixth stage of development onwards, - i.e. after we reached the necessary stability. All feelings of ecstasy occurring in stages 1 to 5 are usually quite fleeting. They do not last longer because in these stages the corresponding blocking karmas can only be inactive briefly and also because this (volatile) state is easily disturbed by the activity of other karmas. Once the respective blocking and disturbing karmas are fundamentally dissolved (in the higher stages of development), the stability for this type of experience automatically rises.
As long as we are still bound by karmic limitations, the attractiveness of any state of ecstasy is mainly based on the contrast between the temporary experience of a 'higher state of consciousness and our normal state. Once this 'higher' state of consciousness becomes more permanent, it matures into the normal state and the feeling of ecstasy fades.
The state of bliss we experience after reaching liberation is far more satisfying than any state of ecstasy that is still subjected to karmic constraints. There is nothing temporary in the state of supreme bliss. Its attraction is not caused by a contrast to lesser states, but by the perception of our innermost nature. - Why go for ecstasy, if we can have the real thing?