For me, in the teaching of the ‘powers of 9’, and any decent spiritual practise, what we are dealing with, is a mastery over our ego mind.
The Buddha was completely focused in his self inquiry with the question, ‘how to end the sufferance of the human condition.’
In one teaching the Buddha is walking through the forest with some monks, he bends down and gathers up a handful of leaves. He asks the monks, which is greater, the leaves in his hand or the leaves of the forest. The monks reply that the leaves of the forest are more, and then the Buddha replies:
“In the same way, monks, those things that I have known with direct knowledge but have not taught are far more numerous [than what I have taught]. And why haven’t I taught them? Because they are not connected with the goal, do not relate to the rudiments (necessary steps) of the holy life, and do not lead to disenchantment, to dispassion, to cessation, to calm, to direct knowledge, to self-awakening, to Unbinding (Nibana). That is why I have not taught them.”1
The entire field of ‘spirituality’ comprises many aspects, form supernatural powers and experiences such as, out of body and astral experiences, communications with ‘higher’ beings (channelling), telepathy, breatharianism, levitation, clairaudience, and many others. The perception of different dimensions, parallel universes, and altered states of consciousness, like lucid dreaming, cosmic consciousness, nirvana and other awakened or enlightened states described in different texts.
Many of these I have no direct experienced of myself. Many of these are the leaves of the forest that the Buddha ‘leaves’ out of his teaching. The end of suffering for the Buddha, is the awakened state. This awakened state is the coming out of egoic mind streams.
Being awake is the art of having our attention resting at the sense doors, aware of both the internal and external fields of experience that are happening within, and about us, moment to moment. Not, turning through chains of thoughts, often concerned with past and future events, or imaginative/fantastical thoughts.
The more we can touch this experience of freedom from egoic mind streams, the more we see the clarity offered through the spectrum of awakened mind states.
The more we ‘see’ this, the more we become ‘disillusioned’ with egoic mind states.
Becoming less passionated by the dance of the ego, the mind can start to calm, egoic thoughts start to ‘cease’, the mind can start to become stiller. When this happens we have more ‘direct knowledge’ direct contact with the present moment. The longer we are able to rest into ‘this space’, when the heart opens up, we can reach to greater heights of present moment awareness, a greater sense of inner peace and harmony, more connected to our outer world, with a deeper sense of the ‘oneness’. Then, total connection, nibbana, or total ‘unbinding’ from the ego-mind, is possible.
And this, was the small handful of leaves, this, was the process, that the Buddha taught.
Most of the time, the freedoms we have from mental clutter are fleeting, and even if we do come back to our sense doors often, there are constant interruptions. To enter into deeper states of present moment awareness we need to develop greater periods of uninterrupted sense door awareness.
For me, stepping out of these egoic mind streams is the teaching of the Buddha. There were many spiritual teachings at the time of the Buddha. While many of these practises had various benefits, the Buddha was totally committed to understanding how to step outside of this sensation of what he called ‘dukkha’, stress, constriction, tensions, that we experience as the backdrop of much of our lifes experiences.
If another spiritual practise helps me to lucid dream, in the lucid dream state, I still have the same mental patterning as I do during my normal waking life. The same if I can visit beings in other dimensions. Such states of mind, if dominated by egoic thoughts will still bring a contracted state of being, which means tensions on the physical, emotional and mental levels.
Having these experiences will undoubtedly shift my perspective or vision of the world, life and experience, and this will also be helpful as part of any path of spiritual development.
But, what brings a greater sense of peace, calm and harmony, is being free from egoic mind streams.
Speaking of harmony, we can also talk about this at a vibrational level. When we are ‘in-tune’ with the universe, therefore ‘out’ of our micro-universe that centers around the ego-mind, then, our physical structure resonates at a higher frequency at the atomic level, closer to the universal frequency.
We all know what it’s like to be at a ‘higher vibration’, when we are excited and looking forward to things or experiencing pleasurable things, and what it means to be at lower vibrations, with any of the array of negative emotions. The awakened state is, ‘the middle way of the Buddha’, not too high, and not too low. When we are able to step outside of egoic patterning, we find a vibration that is in sync with the natural world, that is peaceful, balanced.
In the ‘Powers of 9’ theory, the number that represents the ego mind is the number 27.
In numerology there are different ways of working with the numbers in giving values to different letters. The two main systems are called ‘ordinal’ and ‘reverse ordinal’.
In the ordinal system the letter A is given the value 1 and so on, until you get to the Z which has a value of 26 since it is the last, and 26th letter in the alphabet.
Reverse ordinal does the exact opposite. The value of the Z is now 1 and A is 26.
This means that from these two main systems, the letters A and Z will have a value of either 1 or 26
The letters B and Y being the second and second to last letters of the alphabet will have the value of either 2 or 25
In the middle of the alphabet the letter M will have the value of either 13 (ordinal) or 14 (reverse ordinal).
This means that every letter in the alphabet has a total value of 27 when you add their ordinal and reverse ordinal values together.
Whichever way we spin this, if we are caught up in the world of letters, the letters being the basis for the words and therefore the thoughts that turn through our mind, then we are caught up in ego.
There is critical/investigative/inquiring thought patterns that keep the mind more present, and don’t create the same level of ‘dullness’ that egoic thoughts, of past, future and fantasy bring.
While the lucidity of sustained periods of awareness, with attention perched at the sense doors, alive to whatever arises within us and all about us, moment to moment, gives us the taste of the awakened mind.
For this experience to be truly sustained, the great heart knot of the yogic texts must be opened, then we enter into the ‘higher states’ of the awakened mind, free from ‘dukkha’, from stress, from constrictions at the level of the body, the emotions and the mind.
To prevent us from going crazy, we are all regularly having micro connections with the fundamental experience of being present. Our stream of egoic based thoughts is constantly punctured by moments of presence. This continuous puncturing creates the experience of having a ‘sense of presence’ in most peoples lives.
To ‘puncture’ is to ‘pierce’, or to ‘break through’ something. In this case we need to break-through the stream of mentation of the egoic mind.
Symbolically we see this in text through ‘punctuation’. Every comma or hyphen, is a mini 9, speech marks are mini 6’s and 9’s, the full-stop is a mini zero (0), and the original symbol for the 0 was actually a simple dot (.).
the letters and the words are symbolic of the ego mind, while the punctuation is symbolic of moments of presence, or genuine contact with the world within and about us.
These moments of presence are consistent, yet fleeting. The goal of developing our conscious awareness is to break through or ‘punctuate’ with greater regularity, while also learning to sustain and move more deeply into these spaces, freed up from the constraints of the ego mind. This is only possible when we are less attached to our fears, our needs and our desires…
1From www.accesstoinsight.org with my brackets.