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The
White Europeans,
Christianity,
and Akasa

 
 Julian C. Lee Mickunas
COPYRIGHT 2012 JULIAN LEE. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED


When through God's grace I was blessed to hear the Divine sound of Aum it was easy for me to see how everything in my Christian upbringing prepared me for that. 

Infinite space is called akasa in the Upanishads. According to the Upanishads, when Pure Consciousness becomes a creative power one of It's first manifestations is the akasa or Infinite Space. 

Now, as soon as you yourself think of infinite space, just ponder it a moment, you yourself are creating it. How much easier it is for the pure Brahman-God who is Pure Consciousness. Think it's hard to visualize akasa? Study astronomy. Astronomers are engaging the thought of infinite space constantly as they keep peering into the the material universe. The further they look, the more it goes on and the more they find. The Upanishads state that the material universe is, in fact, infinite and goes on infinitely, just like the Pure Consciousness itself, Brahman. Thus by looking at the material cosmos, you will certainly perforce be visualizing infinite space. And every boy and girl does it when they lay down on some summer hill during a break from play and looks up at the clouds in the sky. But the White Peoples created sacred places for thinking about Brahman (God) that themselves evoke that akasa.

One can entertain himself, if one wants, applying reason to this (should one be inclined to entertain himself by reasoning.) That is, it's easy to see how any Creator might first like to create a space to create in. Even we, when we seek to create, set out a space for it: A clear table, a blank canvas, or a work room or shop. We are like that because our Source is like. The Infinite Space is where a perceivable, knowable creation would naturally be placed. 

Some of the Upanishads state that the Creator-Lord is Infinite Space. That is to say, that is one of It's forms. Others say that He is Aum, divine inner sound. In truth, these two different aspects of the same thing. Thus it is that when one spends much time thinking about Infinite Space (akasa) -- and is also chaste and has a devotional attitude to this Lord -- he begins to hear Divine Inner sound. He begins, as it were, to hear the Infinite Space. By merging in That Sound, he is merging in God and in Infinite Space. This ends all sorrows, which is the purpose of Religion.

Photo of a Church in Julian Lee's "White Europeans and Akasa"

My greatest exposure to the thought of akasa -- Infinite Space -- came from looking up at the sky as a child, and from sitting in my Church.

Likewise, when one hears Divine Inner sound, his capacity to think about Infinite Space -- to contact it in mind -- increases.

Because the two are closely related. Sound reverberates in space. As one hears the Divine Sound of Amen/Aum, his consciousness naturally perforce expands into Infinite Space.


Thus it is that the thought of Infinite Space lays a groundwork within for coming to perceive

and know the subtle God within as blissful Divine Sound, and also blissful Divine Light. For me this began in childhood in my Catholic Church, which was designed and built in such a way as to evoke the thought of Akasa. 

Why did my ancestors build their churches this way? Because men and women who think about God a lot get instincts about God's nature. Thus my grandfathers and grandmothers of Europe designed their Sacred Places (churches) to evoke the thought of infinite space. They may not have done it consciously always, but they did it because they received instinctive knowledge of God through thinking of God. The White Europeans thought about the Transcendental Principle a great deal. They even had a special day reserved -- every 7th day -- for the thought of God alone. (What an amazing and cosmic-minded people our grandfathers and grandmothers were!) It was natural then that their churches evolved to evoke Akasa, one of the Creator-God's first evolutes. Just as it was natural for them to build tall steeples representing the rectitude and straightness of the spine when aspiring for God, and the sublimated sexual energy made sacred by placing it in sacred limits (procreation and family), with the rest sublimated in aspiration for God. 

Thus the White Europeans created, in Vedic terms, Shiva Lingams in every one of their villages and towns -- subconsciously reminding young minds of rectitude, sublimation, worship. When White Europeans thought of God, they thought of "up." This correct. As one lifts his energies "up" towards the brain, he is coming close to the Creator and the point of contact with the Creator. These church steeple Shiva lingams of the White European villages represented the straightness of the spine aspiring up to the brain and higher centers within, powered by consecrated sexual energy in a religious culture which considered sex to be sacred and dissolution to be vice. Feminists and communists derided them as "phallic symbols." They actually are, but not in a way those critics of White culture would understand. Just as with the Hindu Shiva lingams, they represented consecrated and concentrated sexual energy that aspires upward; aspiration powered by chastity and moral virtue. When men do not contain consecrated and living creative energy they do not build structures that aspire  upwards towards the transcendental. These Shiva lingams (the Christian steeples) are, in fact, the most elegant Shiva-lingams in the world, just as Christianity is one of the most elegant forms of Bhakti-Yoga. 

Interesting too that our people put great, beautiful brass bells at the top of these. When one aspires in chastity up the spine, seeking for the vision of God, he or she will hear bells. The sound of Amen or Aum, likewise, can be compared to a great ringing bell.

So all this instinctive knowledge, whether conscious or unconscious, arose in my White European ancestors simply through the Thought-Of-God over centuries. For that I have my grandfathers and grandmothers to thank, and am grateful to the Creator for letting me born into the Christian-heritage race.

Infinite space and the Divine Sound are synonymous. Both Infinite Space and Divine Sound (Aum, Amen) are synonymous, also, with the Creator-Lord Himself. Because of the early thought of Infinite Space and infinitude in general my mind opened up later to be able to perceive the knowable God within. 

There were particular times and four places, I can see now, where I put my mind in contact with Infinite Space. Do you think it's special? No, all children do. The first was looking up into the sky. I might be lying back on a grassy hill for a moment during play. Or looked up at the sky as I swung on a swung and swung up towards the sky. Or seeing clouds in the sky at various distances, some far. Or looking up into a night sky full of stars, with my father talking about far away things, or the past. Time itself is an aspect of infinite space. Time exists because of space and space and time are cross sections of the same thing. Thus when you "look into time" by hearing about a past story, you are looking into the Timeless. This is even more so if the story is "mythic" and not pinned to any particular year or century. Thus when you "look into time" you are looking into Infinite Space. Conversely, when you think of think of Infinite Space you are touching the timeless and all time. 

Another time I thought of infinite space was when someone was describing it -- literal space with its stars and planets -- and its seeming infinitude. Or listening to a story that took me back into the thought of the Past. Another time we put our mind in contact with akasa is by hearing reverberant sound. 

Another way was by hearing stories of transcendental things, especially the miracles of Jesus. These evoke both the Transcendental, and the thought of  "all possibilities." The thought of "all possibilities" is the same as the thought of Infinite Space. Remarkably, I grew up hearing about the miracles of Jesus, and all this time I was having my mind placed thereby in touch with infinitude. Later I enjoyed reading about the miraculous doings of other God-men such as Neem Karoli Baba and many others. In the same way, hearing of these stories puts the mind in touch with the infinite. How lucky Christian children have been to be raised that way. Is it the reason that White Europeans accomplished so much in the material world and penetrated into space? Because the miraculous stories of Christ nourished their minds on the infinite? Perhaps.

Then the other times my mind contacted Akasa -- and these times cemented the capacity for the thought -- were when in Sunday Church. And especially when sitting in the church empty and alone. (Our church was always open to go into, day and night.)

My Christianity baptized me with the thought of Infinite Space each time I walked into our beautiful church. Infinite Space was also the thought evoked by sitting quietly in my pure, ambient church with its tall stained glass windows letting in light from other ages (through their historic scenes) and the high ceilings rising up high and painted with sky-blue, golden stars, and heavenly images of angels.

It has become easy to see, since then, that my White European ancestors -- every striving for the Transcendental through the thought of their Transcendental guru Jesus Christ -- had instincts about infinite space through-and-through. These instincts expressed themselves in the way they developed their sacred buildings, and the way they worked with sound and music. This gave me the Lord and gave me the true Yoga of the Upanishads and the Yoga-Sutras -- which was in fact the yoga from which the Lord Jesus hailed.

Knowledge found in religion is not always explicitly expressed or even consciously understood by its adherents. One's outer religions are, in fact, nothing but one's own inner wisdom projected outward. You project your own higher wisdom into religions found externally in the daily world-dream. Somehow the religions I projected into my ephemeral world dream were rich in answers and uplift. Everything in the external self-projected world upgrades itself and improves as one purifies himself and his body; source of the outer-projected world. This includes the religions. Religions are supposed to provide Answers, Explanations, Uplift, Guidance, and Protection. If one finds that all his self-projected religions (in his world-dream) are "stupid," "confusing," "corrupt" etc. -- this is due to his own impurities. As a man purifies himself, religions with stupendous explanations and self-provable techniques and proofs appear. The world also begins to become populated by transcendental beings and real saints.

Through fasting, the the thought of God, and effort at chastity -- I ended up projecting religions full keys that work, principles that destroy sorrow, and techniques that give contact with the blissful and transcendental God. Such was the case with many of our White European who gave themselves to the great Bhakti-Yoga of Christianity.

And the White European sensibilities about infinite space were present and speaking to me even though others may not have explained or taught those sensibilities. But it affected me anyway and laid the groundwork for penetrating the true secrets of Yoga or God-search.

Whenever we think of Infinite Space, we are thinking of God. In fact, the moment you think of Infinite Space -- you are literally touching God Itself. Because Infinite Space is very intimate with God, being one of  the very first things the Creative Principle manifests or creates. As a young boy and then a young man, simply sitting in our great and beautiful church -- especially when it was empty -- was putting my mind in touch with the thought of Infinite Space. Later it bore great fruit.


The thought of Infinite Space is a powerful yogic technique. It is a powerful meditation. It will bring divine fruit to the chaste yogic or religious person. For as mentioned, it is the thought of God, and in one of His most intimate and powerful forms. Akasa contains all. Akasa is Pure, and akasa contains infinite bliss.

I mentioned reverberance. When we hear echo and reverberance our minds think across time. This sound takes us into the timeless. When we are thinking "across time" our mind is expanding with thought of Infinite Space also. Notice how White people built their churches so that they were reverberant spaces. If you are sitting in an empty church and somebody takes a step, or drops some small thing, you hear it. The stone surfaces of the old churches were built both for the beauty of stone and because stone creates reverberation. A basic purpose of this architecture was to create natural reverb for religious singing. Notice how the singing of monks and nuns, in the Gregorian chant, is always done in a reverberant space and thus has rich reverberation. This sound also puts the mind of the religious person, or the church goer, or the child -- into contact with infinite Time and infinite Space. When we hear reverb, we go "into the mystic" -- into the eternal space within ourselves, and that is the touching of God, the Lord.

Then notice how White Europeans developed a particular instrument for religious worship: The organ. The organ makes a sound that has two qualities: It sounds reverberant itself. Even when not played in a reverberant space, the organ sounds as if it is in a reverberant space. It sounds distant, subtle, and clothed in layers. The 2nd feature of the Christian church organ is that it sounds like the inner divine sound of Aum. 

Indigenous shamans have created instruments that try to evoke the sound of the inner divine sound of Aum. One of these is the digeridoo. Another is the sitar, developed by the sages of India. The the divine sound of Aum cannot be represented or duplicated in a physical sound, both these sounds evoke it in some of its forms. The phasing, extended qualities of both these instruments evoke the divine and blissful sound of Aum. However, the church organ of the White Europeans also evokes -- and quite strongly -- the divine sound of Aum. And I would say more magnificently. Of all instruments I have ever heard there is nothing that comes closer to representing it, especially in the organ's magnificent, phasing, and powerful moments. Then also in its highly subtle, barely-heard settings, which are evocative of the subtle sounds of the spine mentioned in the Upanishads and by Indian yogis. 

Thus the White European church organ evokes both the inner divine sound of Aum/Amen, plus evokes the thought of Infinite Space, which is the thought of God. 

The thought of God, entertained by the chaste and with a devotional attitude like our White European grandmothers and grandfathers, will lead the religious person to personal experience of the blissful God within. 

The divine inner sound is both painful and blissful. The pain comes from ego destruction. The bliss comes from growing knowledge of the Lord, who is bliss. He is blissful because infinite space is blissful, and he is infinite because bliss is infinite. 

The Upanishads state that the material universe is infinite/endless just as Brahman is infinite. However, there is nothing gained by seeking in the material universe, but only by seeking the Infinite changeless God. Our White ancestors knew this, thus built buildings and created music that put the mind in touch with that infinite God. 

To be continued...

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 -- hthtth

hththu

 hthtth

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"oooo"

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COPYRIGHT 2011 Julian Lee.
All Rights Reserved.

The Chidakasha Gita Of Nityananda with Commentary by
Julian Lee
&
 Commentary  On Yoga-Sutra Verses 2:49-51

On Pranayama and Kumbhaka

 













 

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