The Short Path to Enlightenment: Instructions for Immediate Awakening

by Paul Brunton

mental evenness which is without rise or fall and which should be the aim of the far-seeing students.

permanent state of enlightenment, abiding unshakeably and at all times in the Overself. (20-4-22)

Although the aspirant has now awakened to his witness-self, found his “soul,” and thus lifted himself far above the mass of mankind, he has not yet accomplished the full task set him by life. A further effort still awaits his hand. He has yet to realize that the witness-self is only a part of the All-self. So his next task is to discover that he is not merely the witness of the rest of existence but essentially of one stuff with it. He has, in short, by further meditations to realize his oneness with the entire universe in its real being. He must now meditate on his witness-self as being in its essence the infinite All. Thus the ultramystic exercises are graded into two stages, the second being more advanced than the first. The banishment of thoughts reveals the inner self whereas the reinstatement of thoughts without losing the newly gained consciousness reveals the All-inclusive universal self. The second feat is the harder. (23-6-88) He is not separate from his own experience, not an observer watching it. For there is only the inner silence, with which he is identified if he turns to examine the I, only the pure consciousness. (22-3-294)

There are three main stations along the path. The first is annihilation of the ego; the second is rebirth in the Overself; and the third is fully grown union with the Overself. The Sufis assert that this final state can never be reached without the Grace of the Higher Power and that it is complete, lasting, and unchangeable. (22-8-28)

For in the lower ego he will never know peace whereas in the diviner one he will always know it.

When he has silenced his desires and stilled his thoughts, when he has put his own will aside and his own ego down, he becomes a free channel through which the Divine Mind may flow into his own consciousness. No evil feelings can enter his heart, no evil thoughts

can cross his mind, and not even the new consequence of old wrong-doing can affect his serenity.

When a man has reached this stage, where his will and life are surrendered and his mind and heart are aware of divine presences, he learns that it is practical wisdom not to decide his future in advance but rather to let it grow out of itself like corn out of seed.

The state of nonduality is a state of intense peace and perfect balance. It is so peaceful because everything is seen as it belongs—to the eternal order of cosmic evolution; hence, all is accepted, all reconciled. (25-2-124)

Second, he knows that if he is to keep an unruffled peace inside him, he must allow nothing outside him to disturb it. Because he regards the outer life as being as ephemeral as a dream, he is reconciled to everything, rebellious against nothing. (20-5-115)

The actions of a man who has attained this degree are inspired directly by his Overself, and consequently are not dictated by personal wishes, purposes, passions, or desires. They are not initiated by his ego’s will but by a will higher than his own.

Whoever acts by becoming so pliable as to let the Overself hold his personal will, must necessarily become inwardly detached from the personal consequences of his deeds. This will be true whether those consequences be pleasant or unpleasant. Such detachment liberates him from the power of karma, which can no longer catch him in its web, for “he” is not there. His emotional consciousness preceding an action is always enlightened and characterized by sublime composure, whereas the unenlightened man’s may be characterized by motivations of self-centered desire, ambition, fear, hope, greed, passion,

dislike, or even hate—all of which are karma-making. (24-3-280)