Stage 5

The fifth stage is associated with the mystical aspect of spirituality. The individual's awareness shifts from the perception of the physical dimension to the experience of the "subtle physiology" of the brain-mind. The mystical ascent through the psychic centers of the body-mind is conditioned by the nervous system. Experience in this stage reaches its peak in the condition of "nirvikalpa samadhi," or formless ecstasy. At the apex of the fifth stage, the individual has transcended his or her fascination with mental forms and images. Master Da comments further:

"In the fifth stage of life, yogic mysticism raises attention into the extremities of subtle experience-or the heavens of ascended knowledge. But liberation in God is not Realized at that stage or by such means. In order for the Life-Current to cross the Divide between the 'third eve' and the 'sahasrar,' or between the body-mind and Infinity, the gesture of attention and the illusion of an independent conscious self must be utterly Dissolved in the true Self

"The highest extreme of the ascent of attention is called 'nirvikalpa samadhi,' or total Absorption of self-consciousness in Radiant Transcendental Consciousness. But, in fact, the seed q/ differentiated self remains in such ascended Absorption of' attention. Attention is yet extended outside the heart, or the root of self-consciousness, as a gesture toward an independent Object, and, therefore, such 'samadhi' is not only temporary, but it remains a form of subject-object Contemplation. "