Shifting out of the conceptual mind/emotional channel in the initial stages of practice–whether in formal meditation, as part of daily mindfulness and relaxation practice, or even as way of getting to sleep–is the topic for the next several blogs. Before I introduce Method 1, I want to discuss the Shri Yantra diagram, my favorite illustration of the stages of Tantric work. I discuss this diagram in more detail in my books Void in Art and A Practice of Tantra so I will only give a brief summary here.
The double -lined outer square with the with the four T shaped “gates” marks a sacred space, the entrance from ordinary reality to non-ordinary reality. Ordinary reality is essentially the conceptual mind/emotional loops, the conditioned interpretations of sensory experience. The first stage of entering sacred space is the non-judgmental apprehension of primary sensory experience, or what we are aware of immediately and directly before reflection. The Enlightenment philosopher David Hume considered reflection to be a secondary impression and that stringing together of primary and secondary impressions into a story line produced conceptual thought. Attending to primary impressions is an effective way of bypassing the thinking mind.
The next stage of practice is the opening of the subtle body of chakras (energy centers) and the nadis (connections between the chakras), which is accomplished in our work by the double breathing or single breathing exercises. In the Shri Yantra diagram, for example, the eight inner lotus buds represent the unfolding of the chakras two inches below the navel and at the navel .
The next stage is represented by the descending and ascending triangles that indicate the descending energy from the third eye to the sexual chakra and the ascending energy from the spinal chakra to the top of the head. The descending and ascending triangles also signify the union of male consciousness (Shiva) and female energy (Shakti). This union is necessary to carry the adept into the next level, the Void body indicated in the Shri Yantra diagram by the dot in this center. It is no accident that this dot or bindu is connected to the opening of the heart chakra. In the Shaivite Tantric tradition the Void body, the highest state of consciousness, it is not a virtual reality but can still be felt in the body -as well as the heart chakra- as a pulsation of energy. Shiva without Shakti running through the body is dead consciousness, according to the Tantrikas.There is no separation between physical and non-physical realities in Tantra -unlike in Vedanta, for example, in which complete sensory withdrawal is advocated to arrive at a “pure” level of consciousness.
Method 1
At home, before doing the double breathing in your formal sitting practice, follow the inhalation and exhalation of breath for a cycle of ten breaths. The inhalations and exhalations will become longer and slower and you will be more relaxed. If a thought occurs don’t hold on to it but gently release it. At the end of breath cycle do not breathe but let yourself be breathed. Your breathing is all there is. You are not doing anything.
Now shift your attention to what you are seeing, touching, smelling and tasting in any order of succession. Apprehend these sensations without judgment, as just sensations. Do not fixate on any sensation. Now register what comes through all the senses at once. Tell me what happens! This is your homework for the next two weeks.
This exercise is also very useful to calm down from stressful situations and to facilitate falling asleep at night. With your eyes closed concentrate on the touch element as you gradually feel your body get heavy and sink into the bed. Touch is related to the element of earth to which you are now returning. Pleasant dreams!
Love it, I feel like it’s important for me to keep remembering this as I often get caught up in…
loved this mark, always so great to remember that there are multiple realities and this collective story we all share…
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Thank you for this lesson, Mark. Your generosity and kindness is incredibly giving. My challenge is having blocked chakras; this…
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Hi everyone,
just wanted to introduce myself first. I am Sally, I’m an artist and curator and I live in East Kent in a place called Margate in the UK. Having spoken to Mark about my experiences since using the method 1 outlined in Marks first blog, I said I would comment, with the hope it might be useful to others and might stimulate a bit of discussion and debate. It’s a bit late because of technical difficulties but hopefully all ok now.
So here goes……. When I attempted to shift my attention to seeing, touching, smelling and tasting after breathing for a cycle of 10 breaths, I found it quite difficult to detect any smell and even less taste but found combining all of the senses in one go, as best I could – quite difficult to keep the focus up – it did give results. Seeing and hearing were more automatic, but touching, i.e. becoming aware of my body touching the ground or itself, as in hands placed in my lap, took more concentration and as I said taste and smell were somewhat negligible, I found I needed something to smell or touch.
What I did find, when I was fully focussed, albeit for a short period of time, was a kind of shift in perspective, almost as if I was in a different space/time, slightly supercharged. I found that if I applied this technique during the meditation session it really helped to shut down the thinking mind because I was so focussed on the direct awareness of my senses.
Coincidentally, I happen to be reading a book called The Spell of the Sensuous by David Abram – which I highly recommend as a fascinating read – a quote from the Los Angeles Times – This book ponders the violent disconnection of the body from the natural world and what this means about how we live and die in it.
There is a section in the book titled ‘Synaesthesia and the Encounter with the Other’ (p125) which I have just been reading and I hope you won’t mind me referring to here.
The experiencing body…..is not a self-enclosed object, but an open, incomplete entity. This openness is evident in the arrangement of the senses: I have these multiple ways of encountering and exploring the world – listening with my ears, touching with my skin, seeing with my eyes, tasting with my tongue, smelling with my nose-and all of these various powers or pathways continually open outward from the perceiving body, like different paths diverging from a forest. Yet my experience of the world is not fragmented; I do not commonly experience the visible appearance of the world as in any way separable from its audible aspect, or from the myriad textures that offer themselves to my touch. When the local tomcat comes to visit, I do not have distinctive experiences of a visible cat, an audible cat, and an olfactory cat; rather, the tomcat is precisely the place where these separate sensory modalities join and dissolve into one another, blending as well with a certain furry tactility. Thus, my divergent senses meet up with each other in the surrounding world, converging and commingling in the things I perceive. We may think of the sensing body as a kind of open circuit that completes itself only in things and the world…….it is primarily through my engagement with what is not me that I effect the integration of my senses, and thereby experience my own unity and coherence.
He later goes on to say,
….Direct, prereflective perception is inherently synaesthetic, participatory and animistic, disclosing the things and elements that surround us not as inert objects but as expressive subjects entitities, powers, potenties (p130)
You may or may not find this relevant, as it is a little out of context with the rest of the book but I thought it might be interest.
I hope maybe to get to meet some of you in October this year as I am coming over to visit my youngest son who lives in Oakland a place I am getting to know quite well!