Umbada: Wild Song of Standing Free: Terms

The Wild Song of Standing Free.

TERMS USED

The terms used in The Wild Song of Standing Free (and throughout these writings) are presented in an order intended to facilitate understanding.

Essence - A verb indicating transformation, transubstantiation or translation of OM (or its variant) into Truth, Self, Ultimate Reality or the Absolute. There is one occurrence, OM, and one knowledge, Standing Free. OM is essenced into Standing Free. However, there is no transition between OM and Standing Free. Nor do these terms represent different levels of being or understanding. There neither is nor is not OM; there neither is nor is not Standing Free; there neither is nor is not essencing. Everything has fallen away. What is there? Essencing is that; that "neither this nor that" - ing of everything-having-become-OM.

Truth, The Self, Ultimate Reality, The Absolute - different terms for the nature of reality or the nature of what is. The author's choice to use any one of these terms in any particular context is founded not strictly in poetic license, for there are differences relative to the stages of residence within the Absolute. In order of decreasing sublimity, one may grade these terms as follows: The Absolute, Ultimate Reality, The Self, Truth. Each term represents the highest realization in which realization itself is essenced.

Consciousness - in the most sublime circumstance, the condition of witnessing all that occurs in the light of attention, including the witnessing of attention (or the light of attention) itself, without departure (or the possibility of departure) from that condition. The one fully relational to consciousness may appear to be involved in every experience and may not appear different from anyone else; yet at every moment there is the witnessing of what is transpiring in the light of attention, as well as the witnessing of the light of attention. The kernel of truth, or the form, of this relationship with attention, is the expression "I Am," the sound "OM," and in the case of the author, the mantra "I AM I AM AND I AM I AM," as well as the secret mantra given by Guru Umba to the author.

Because of the unceasing disposition of witnessing, all experiences, even the spiritual, are transcended and eventually transformed into the kernel of truth or one of the variants of OM. Consciousness is then termed extremely transcendental.

When Standing Free is attained, there is no witnessing, no consciousness, only the Absolute. So it is said that Standing Free is the essencing of the extremely transcendental.

Guru - Master; the One in whose company a person is directed toward spiritual development and the eventual state of Standing Free. The Guru is not restricted to serving only as spiritual teacher or adviser, nor is the Guru simply characterized as The One Standing Free. The Guru issues Spiritual Force out of the Atmosphere of the Absolute itself. Because the Guru's relationship with the Absolute is pure, there is only one Guru, though there appear to be, and to have been, several individuals operating in different modes (for example, internally or externally) and employing different methods and vocabularies.

Grace - that which moves one toward the condition of Standing Free. The Absolute as it draws one toward itself. The Absolute itself.

Atmosphere - the Absolute in relation to its influence upon everything. The Absolute neither has nor has not an atmosphere. The atmosphere of the Absolute neither exists nor does not exist. The Absolute neither exerts nor exerts not an influence. The intuitively grasped environment which acts upon things so that they are essenced. The aura of the Absolute.

One Day - "There is only One Day;" the unexperienced experience of Standing Free. Although one sleeps, wakes and attends to matters of living with regard to a calendar, there is absolutely no sense of one day passing into another. It is just as accurate to say, "There is only one moment," or "...only one season." Though the body ages and events occur, these are independent of time to the one Standing Free; in a sense the body does not age and events do not occur. Everything is being essenced or out-shining itself. It describes a stage of relationship with the Absolute that precedes Standing Alone.

Standing Alone - residence within the realm of the Absolute.

I Am Standing Free - utterance of Truth by The One Standing Free. The utterance which naturally follows, I AM I AM AND I AM I AM, and which is not merely the transcendence of that, but which is its essencing. One of the stages of residence within the realm of the Absolute, it is out of this "condition" that works are created from the disposition of Ultimate Reality or the Absolute.

Standing Free - mature residence within the realm of the Absolute.

Full Knowledge - pertaining to Standing Free, it is knowledge remaining when all knowledge has been essenced. As well, residence within the Absolute "feels" full; there is a fullness of energy which does not ordinarily receive private or public attention; this energy even possesses a structure (beyond theosophical constructs) which has been discussed by very few teachers as it's existence is due to - and is - the eternal process of the essencing of consciousness.

Interval - the Absolute or Standing Free. It implies there exists some object, entity, knowledge, experience or reality which, via worldly application of attention, has in some way become occupied, obstructed or obscured. It is only by application of attention which has essenced itself, that objects, entities, knowledge, experiences of all kinds (even the extremely transcendental) and realities are "split" so that the Interval is exposed and there occurs residence within the Absolute. To the one Standing Free, there is only the Interval. However, to the one Standing Free the Interval is perceived from the perspective of Standing Free and is described only for teaching purposes. It does not describe a stage or spiritual milestone through which anyone must or will pass. Therefore, one should not necessarily "try" to experience the Interval or to "see" it. For one moving into the condition of Standing Alone or Standing Free, it is necessary to feel with every cell and point of energy that one possesses, the being of the one Standing Free, the quality of that condition, without assigning any words or practices to it. Only then could there be a real understanding of the Interval. Only then could the Interval be "seen."

Umba - the Guru of the author. See Chapter Seven.

Umbaic Initiation - the author's encounters with Umba in which a secret mantra was intoned with such intention, force and intelligence that it carried, guided and delivered the author to the condition of Standing Free.

Mantra - a speech-sound or a name which upon repetition and meditation functions as a source of power, transforming one into a realizer of Truth. Appropriately and necessarily, every aspect of a person's life improves upon paying proper attention to the mantra. The other side of mantra meditation is the giving of the mantra. The giving itself confers enough power so that the mantra meditates the recipient and transforms that person, often unwittingly.

However, when a Guru-given mantra (as opposed to a mantra taken from a book or from someone who is not of Full Knowledge) is meditated upon, its inherent power is magnified to the extent of virtually assuring residence within the Absolute. The transformative effect of the mantra given by the Guru occurs because the recipient is ready to accommodate it and because the mantra is the sound of extreme consciousness. The mantra given to the author remains secret. The mantra, I AM I AM AND I AM I AM, is revealed because it is less potent than the secret one. The author was not able to meditate upon the secret mantra until his late twenties. Up until that time the mantra meditated the author, working without acknowledgment, understanding or conscious support. A Guru-given mantra is not necessary for ultimate spiritual growth. The True Guru is the mantra.

I AM I AM AND I AM I AM - utterance spontaneously voiced by the author at the age of seven. It is not simply realization of being a living individual in the world. The expression marks the instant of witnessing oneself as a living individual whose essential nature is I AM. The moment of witnessing was stimulated and supported by the encounters with Umba. The author's life comprises not only meditation upon the utterance, but the meditation of the utterance itself upon the author. Although many, perhaps most people have had such realizations during childhood, the author highly valued the experience, moved deeply into its meaning and allowed the force of the expression and realization to perform its own inner work upon him. The term that follows is really a continuation of this.

I Am That - a variant of OM, I AM, I AM I AM AND I AM I AM, I AM THAT I AM. Sometimes the culmination of a descriptive passage or speech in which there is an attempt to transmit a sense of the Ultimate, the word "That" referring to the descriptive attempt or to Ultimate Reality itself, and that descriptive attempt invariably a struggle to say I AM. OM refers to the fundamental sound of consciousness in its highest category. I AM is the play of OM within the human body and through the human life in all its facets. I AM THAT I AM is simply the reverberation of the I AM occurrence even as the sound OM reverberates throughout consciousness (and, indeed, is consciousness). I AM I AM AND I AM I AM is another quality of reverberation, again dependent upon the entirety of the individual. The resonation of OM within an individual is unique, however the capture of that resonation is performed by a linguistic net whose seldom catch is rarely noticed, retained or properly valued, it would appear.

Chainwheel - a symbol for the form of life as it is in the thick of worldly existence. It is a chain whose links compose each and every identification with the world from the perspectives of the physical body, the emotional life, thoughts and mental function, relationships with divine force, God, and with consciousness in its extremely transcendental state. It is a wheel in which all the links are connected, and it rolls from experience to experience. The Guru shows you the chainwheel and guides you toward the disintegration of it so that you are Standing Free or Standing Alone within the atmosphere in which the chainwheel would exist, operate and feed itself.

Prana - mana from the Absolute. That which vitalizes everything, including consciousness and kundalini. Its essence is the Absolute. Meditating upon a particle of prana, it is very easy to move into the Absolute, for its core is Grace. Striking a relationship with prana itself is difficult but is often established when prana introduces itself prior to, during or after (even days or weeks after) a classical kundalini awakening.

Kundalini - a force that fills, vivifies and brings to function at least a portion of the unused 90% of brain capacity (which leads to, but does not culminate in, intellectual and creative powers; culmination lies in the absorbing of intellectual and creative powers into the Absolute, which is another way of saying that the brain essences itself.)

Kundalini modifies the function of nerve cells so that a person is more sensitive to the usual stimuli and sensitive to new stimuli or energies. The change in nervous function is accompanied by alterations in all other organ systems as well. All this change occurs as a person moves into the condition of Standing Free. Even in the course of one person's spiritual development, this modification may at times be jarring, sudden and shocking, while during other spans of time it occurs slowly and imperceptibly, as a gradual ripening. Kundalini is a force possessing its own intelligence and should not ordinarily be intentionally stimulated, but allowed to operate without imposition of one's will unless one is guided by a Guru who sees the need for kundalini awakening.

Avadhuta - one who is Standing Free and in acknowledgment of the Guruic directionality of the Avadhuta Gita, Avadhutism as transcendence of the perspective of the Siddhas, and especially Dattatreya (a Hindu incarnation of God; a god who teaches and guides; an avadhut liberated beyond Rama and Krishna by virtue of this transcendence of joy and sorrow) not merely as a symbol of the highest realization, but as a being who indeed imparts a teaching, who serves as a guide toward realization of the Ultimate, who confers Grace and who ultimately becomes only what he is: the Absolute.