Good Observation, I think we have to consider in human enterprise of any kind marketing is always present.
So novice human = young new to human existence being likely but not necessarily limited to those we consider criminals that cannot participate in society in a peaceful manner as they have not yet been human often enough to get it and coexist with others so they are remanded to incarceration facilities since they lack self control.
Here is an example:
I'll use traffic as it has been used here already.
A person cuts you off or lets say pulls out in front of you but does not accelerate just continues creeping making you slam on the brakes.
1. The young type person relatively inexperienced with Human incarnations hits the brakes then in a fit of rage may ram them in the rear bumper or pulls along side the person cursing throwing a tantrum perhaps even sideswiping them or shooting them having an overwhelming desire to get even. This in my view would be a person of lesser self control which is akin to spiritually less advanced, or perhaps it is less experienced with living in the human condition.
At this stage a person is one with their impulses and there is no discriminating witness, action = automatic reaction, you hit me I hit you back harder maybe even kill you for hitting me is the motto.
2. The next degree up on the rung would like this: the person in question is subjected to the same stimulus is alarmed hits the brakes get pissed off at the jerk in front of them may even hit the horn and lean on it for a long time and or flip them off. This is the extent of the reaction.
At this stage a person is being inflamed to the point of near retaliatory action and it would not take much to tip the balance in favor of violence. It is here where restraint is being practiced the impulse to do something is there and is partially acted upon before reasoning mind manages to abort it completely. At this stage the impulse is felt as it nearly becomes action.
Automatic reaction with restraint, you hit me I hit you back just as hard but only if I can get away with it is the motto.
3.The next degree up on the rung same conditions person is alarmed hits the brakes blows the horn and has elevated blood pressure but does not have such extreme dialog going on in their head as the one before still considers person a jerk separate less deserving of existence and lesser than themselves.
At this stage a person is completely restrained and has self control as they can now feel the impulse to violence and abort it before it becomes anything but they are suppressing it and this leads to extreme frustration.
The Motto here is I wish these damned idiots would learn how to drive.
4. The next degree Hits the brakes at the same time viewing the rear view mirror and seeing someone tight in behind them controls the speed of their vehicle to compensate for the one in front and behind. Can be alarmed but mostly is dispassionate and feeling calculating an outcome that serves the situation best.
At this stage a person is well aware of what can cause the impulses and knowing they do not want to be placed in situations where they will experience frustration take more responsibility for their position on the road by paying greater attention to their situational awareness and participating in the process by making their own driving more predictable to others.
The motto here is: I have to drive for the other person as well as myself.
5. In the next degree the driver is aware of what is behind him as well as in front and is scanning the road several car lengths in advance and already realizes there is no hope of making the light so they begin decelerating in advance when the person pops out it is not a surprise but one is still annoyed by such lack of consideration and lack of situational awareness on the other persons part for driving like this. On top of it all the person behind them is impatient so they zoom around only to arrive at the red light seconds in advance of the more controlled one. This driver thinks, my how foolish and is still carrying on dialogs in his head.
In this degree the person not only feels the beginnings of an impulse knows where they lead and become but actively does their best to absentee themselves while still participating on the road.
The motto here is: It is better to let others pass than become entangled with the activity.
6. The next rung up all conditions remain the same but one feels connectivity with the goings on around them brought about by more inner silence and peace in a participating manner so there is nothing personal whatsoever at all and the goings on are reduced to quantum's of activities everything is just moving about and there is no meaning attached to any of it.
At this stage Impulses do not even come up in the first place as the samaskaras have unwound to a large degree and inner silence is firmly in place a large degree most of the time.
In this instance the person is driving down an ice coated mountain top and the rear end of the vehicle starts coming around they correct this dispassionately bringing the rear end back to straight then it goes the other way they correct this then it goes the other way.
Realizing this is the way it is going to happen they abort all further attempts at correcting the physics of the situation and simply think well ok God how bad is this going to be? and witness the vehicle spinning down the mountain with them in it watching the taillights in front of them and the headlights behind as they spin. As they spin they fully appreciate the seriousness of what is happening and in what could be their final moments as a whole living person thoroughly enjoy the moment by being here now to the largest extent possible.
Time then dilates and slows, while this is going on one feels their tiny self expanding and are one with God and the feeling is that of an electric magnetic embrace being within the cosmic womb and the reality of the situation is what it is but the reality of what you are encompasses the event transpiring in linear time. It is alright and there is nothing left to do but witness and accept the impact by relaxing into just being.
Once the vehicles nose strikes the concrete barrier at he bottom of the mountain and is on the side of the road in the piled up snow the person makes sure they are not sticking out in the road confirming this gets out of the vehicle and asses's the damage then gets back on the road or not after observing traffic coming down that same mountain at a much reduced rate of speed after having been treated to the spectacle that just transpired.
This is from actual experience.Still this person can experience bouts of backsliding to number 5. in the list. So beyond this I really can not speak most of the time I find myself firmly between 5 and 6. and always even in sleep the witness.
But does that make me spiritually advanced? I don't think so I believe what it makes me is experienced with living human lifetimes, and perhaps they are the same thing?
Things like you describe are indeed milestones as you have experienced but
experience is the path of yoga which is the opposite of non duality ( so kind of out of place here but a valid statement any way ) it is still a good observation.
To consider such experiences happening as induced by sadhana which is in and of itself an artificial practice may be forcing experiences that come in due time and therefore are not equal to the statement of being indicative of spiritually advanced or not.
This leads to the the topic of inner silence. Can Sadhana lead to inner silence? the answer is yes it can. Can a person arrive at inner silence by just living I suppose so if they have had enough lifetimes.
So if we take this into consideration the sales pitch of Kriya for example starts to make sense the airplane route to self realization versus the bullock cart of plodding through numerous human lifetimes.
This then means that it is a difference that makes no difference. How one arrives at more inner silence and operating from the witness state to increasing degrees appears to be the operative thing that counts no matter what path is taken to arrive.
Inner silence is the reward of sadhana, Inner silence the dawning of Self Realization. Inner silence the reward of living many lifetimes. These days I greatly appreciate the inner silence most of all, being the witness gets boring the silence is always EVER NEW.
On the topic of Advaita a word forgotten long ago it is just something that comes in degrees over time on it's own so making a big stink about it seems counter intuitive.
Trying to talk about it even worse than attempting to describe Samadhi. In my opinion it is better to discuss it in theory and practice related to it one may do as any attempt to discuss it takes one into the realm of experience which is not the same as experience requires duality.
There is also a danger with Advaita and that is the deception of intellect. I suspect people truly capable of Advaita or self inquiry alone are rare. This is one of the reasons I strongly support Yogani's posts in this thread.
One of the most well recognized and respected persons ever to walk the planet in recorded times Ramana Maharishi who was all about self Inquiry is recorded as saying the ones best suited to his teaching were already like dry wood ready to catch fire.
My first exposure to this teacher was through the book Concentration by a student of his writing under the name Mouni Sadhu when I was 14 or 15 years old. More on him here.
http://www.mounisadhu.com/mouni-sadhu-books.html I myself have always been too damp but at least recognize it and this is where I fear many are fooling themselves which is extremely easy to do with this approach lots of pundants few sages, even fewer saints.
Okay this was too long.
quote:
Originally posted by SeySorciere
Question: What does "spiritually advanced" or "spiritual evolved" Human beings even mean??
May I add another Myth?
Once the crown is open and you can see the Lotus Flower and higher chakras and all sorts of other crap, you are spiritually advanced?
Not! Now that I am there, I find I am no where near Sainthood ![[:D]](http://www.aypsite.com/plus-forum/Smileys/akyhne/icon_smile_big.gif "Big Smile")
Slight improvement in behaviour - yes, but still missing the mark more often than not.
![[OM]](http://www.aypsite.com/plus-forum/Smileys/akyhne/om.gif "OM")
Sey
