I'm Dancing as fast as I can, but... time's a-wastin'!

Every time I turn around, two weeks have whizzed by! I have a stack of stuff in my 'blog-potentials' folder, so I'd better get some of it posted. The "West of Eden" conference on March 25th focused on northern California communal history and legacy, where I read a paper of dubious ponderings, some funny, some not. I'll post it to my website as Communal Practices.

Also, in a continuing chat on the excellent 'The Way of Light' Yahoo list, I've been writing about various entry points for achieving 'awareness of pure awareness' in the easiest possible manner. If some of what I say echoes what I've written here and elsewhere numerous times, it's because I haven't found anything easier yet. And unless you're a true-natural-born virtuoso who can just take the basic Mahamudra instruction to 'just relax into your innate buddhahood' and fly away, it seems that a few preliminaries might be necessary for us slowpokes. And I definitely consider myself an EXTREME slowpoke in as much as I've been meditating in one form or another since at least 1965 and I'm still not permanently established in relaxed no-mind. although I think I've made some good 'relaxes' in the past few years (damn well better, honeychile, since you're nearing official ancient-hood! Anyway, I'll excerpt a few of my comments to some postings by J from the list chat. This is not in dialog format, but my inserted comments into a long posting by 'J':

Ramon: Thank you, J, very sincerely for all your postings on Awareness, inasmuch as you are always and most thoroughly RIGHT ON -- although perhaps requiring a level or two of understanding or preparation that might not be immediately apparent or reachable by some of us more Eeyore-esque types. And if these "preparatory levels" are not required, why then are there not hundreds of enlightened bodhisattvas spreading out all over this planet? Or perhaps my name is not Ray Sender, but Race Ender – coming in last as usual, (as I used to in teenage sailboat races, but always with the prettiest girl as crew). And let me just say I have not labored over these comments, but just wrote them from my heart as spontaneously as possible.

J: ...Once the "impediments" to living a truly spontaneously compassionate and beneficent life have been exposed, self-liberated and resolved, one's natural Heart of love and compassion, the Mother Light, will shine forth with tremendous power.

RAMON: I find I can resolve "impediments" by "dissolving" all lateral chest tensions (armorings) via smiling purrs that resonate the trachea on both the inhale and exhale, which in turn vibrates the aorta/heart/ circulatory system. Done enough and thoroughly, the heart is liberated to beam in all directions. I suggest this as a very easy and natural method that can be practiced sub-vocally in all settings (I purred silently through a full day's conference on Saturday, or at least for about three hours of it!)

J: This intrinsically present core of infinite Goodness has its own Wisdom that self-illuminates and guides one's actions in bringing benefit and blessings to all beings spontaneously. Why is this not apparently "working" in our lives now?

RAMON: It's not "working" in many lives, because dissolving the impediments (armorings) has not been made easy enough, nor have the methods offered been shown to be very natural. (well, you do point to our innate buddhashood as the basically natural state, but still... again, where are the thousands of liberated beings?)

J: Every time we carry on a "train of thought" we are empowering this "ego-conscious- ness", the unsuspected interloper and "hijacker" of our Bliss. Why do we keep doing that? . . . What would happen if we stopped feeding our "minds" with thought-energy?

RAMON: But HOW? The ability to just 'stop feeding thought-energy' is for the highly advanced and/or talented student. But there is an easier way for us donkeys: when waves of bliss pour out of our hearts, they overpower thought-energy, and the 'thinker' is just swept along, like a surfer riding in the 'tube.'

J: A couple of things would occur: eventually our minds would become calm AND we would notice underlying and along with this "confused thinking mind" exists a pure and pristine Awareness that intrinsically contains all the Joy, Compassion and Wisdom one could ever imagine possible. We would also find these newly revealed treasures as having been present and available all along! How amazing!!

RAMON: Again, but HOW? We can unveil our own innate heart-self, yes. But again, how do we donkeys achieve this melting-away of obstacles easily and naturally?

J: The more we reduce the obsessive activities of empowering our "thinking mind", the greater the chances of our experiencing our pure and perfect Presence of Awareness, the ever-present Son-Light. As our "thinking mind" drops away from lack of being energized, we now find our newly ascended and now prominent Awareness supreme within the primordial domain of the Clear Light of our Being.

RAMON: So beautiful and so true. But again, the HOW? The how easily HOW?

J: To come to this state of Awareness of our own Being, we have to radically "cut" the tree of confused "thinking mind" at the root. We do this by cutting off our trance-like dependence on "thinking" and "imagining" from moment to moment. When you catch your self "thinking" just gently pull your attention away into this present moment, free of thought. Practice this continuously. If we are completely free of "thinking", we have eliminated the root suffering.

RAMON: Yes, this is very elegant and beautiful, and does indeed work very well. I love it! But also I find that I can just "drop" into the heart with the smile/purr/ snarl method. Once centered in the chest, the head just falls into its proper place as a thinking 'appendage' and not the fake center any longer. Also I sometimes copy the Zen master Hakuin's facial mudra as depicted in his self-portrait.
Please note the slightly crossed eyes and the suggestion that the cheeks are drawn in because of the vacuum created between the soft palette and the tongue. Also, I 'intuit' that the front chin muscle is drawn up slightly (this I consider the 'compassion mudra.')

J: As our underlying Presence of Awareness becomes more dominant, and our "thinking mind" drops into the background, which is the reverse of our current situation, a Knowingness will become vividly present in all situations. A subtle intuition will now guide us towards skillful action, without having to rely on "thought". At that juncture, your potential energies of thought will now arise as the mirror-like "clarity" of your Awareness, without ever developing into "thoughts" which are of a much coarser nature and vibration, the vibration of ego-consciousness. "Thinking-mind" is the function of our deluded ego-consciousness. "Knowing" Awareness is spontaneous, thoroughly creative and always arises from the Heart of Compassion. It's "ok" to drop your "thinking mind"! But just listen to your ego now! "Oh, no, we can't do that... what if.... blah, blah blah...!" Look where "listening to your ego-mind" has gotten you so far!
Fearlessly, and without the slightest tinge of hesitation, just cut it off at the knees, no on second thought, better cut it off at the root! Be diligent and thorough from moment to moment. To clarify, this "chopping off" of thought is really very subtle. You simply "notice" and then immediately "stop paying attention" to any and every thought that passes through your Awareness...

Following this practice of "dropping mind and thought", your Awareness will eventually self-liberate all thought spontaneously, without any need for practice or effort. The more you simply remain in Presence of Awareness, resting relaxed yet fully alert, you will experience greater dissolution of the ego and it's "thinking mind". Having arrived home, centered within the Mother Light of your own Being, you are now joyously free in living out your life of choiceless service for the benefit of all beings, beyond hesitation nor need for "thinking" what one should or should not do!

RAMON: Yes, really so very perfect and wonderful! I find there is a place where the heartbeat pulses within the voice, perhaps most easily practiced with a steady tone such as OMMM... If the heartbeat modulates the steady tone, and you 'speak' from that pitch and modulation, you cannot help but speak from the heart in a 'heartfelt' manner. This is also why, when a singer sings with a natural vibrato and not a 'faked' one, we find it so very moving. I suppose, in a sense, this 'heartfelt' voice can be practiced and applied as just a 'technique,' but then perhaps not. Because if the practice produces the natural effect, you once again are drawn into the heart. I would have to go interview some professional singers to find out!

Does all this make sense? I feel very grateful for your lessons and comments, J, but I also feel that we must search for the very easiest access methods so they can be brought to the largest numbers of people! I would be very happy if others would try out the smile/snore/purr method and the Hakuin facial mudra, as two of several easily applied access gateways. Time's a-wastin'!

Putting Things In Solar Perspective

The renowned Buddhist scholar Vimalakirti emphasizes the basic teaching of Buddhism: "Voidness itself _is_ matter." We might call this "The Spiritual Unified Field Theory" -- i.e. matter and spirit exist on the same vibrational scale. So then, what is to keep us from identifying 'Pure Awareness' as 'Solar Awareness' -- understanding our innate oneness with the Source of all light and life in our neighborhood via the ‘golden thread’ that connects us (at least in some people’s experience) to the Solar Source?
Positioning Pure Awareness geographically instead of abstractly/subtly helps me understand my surroundings better. Thus I am offered a visible example of an entity in Nirvana - i.e. my very own parent star shining forth in my own innate buddhahood, thus serving as a role model/mirror for my own practice (non-practice). Going in typical human self-inflationary abstractions ‘beyond’ our own physical neighborhood in space/time and ascribing to ourselves potential access to a wider experience of intrinsic awareness _beyond_ the solar center strikes me as indulging in the same fallacy as that of a flea crawling up an elephant’s leg intent on intercourse. I think everything various traditions describe happens on various orbit levels of nearness to Source, and that Source is physically visible in our sky daily. That’s what most of our planetary nature (all life) experiences from where it’s positioned a half-second ahead of humanity’s self-reflexive delay between pure awareness and ego-centered consciousness. So until I meet an entity on this planet whose awareness shines like that of our parent star... my focus remains on that half-second ahead of my ‘self’ where all life thrills to untrammeled Presence.
This is not to say that I don’t find Dzogchen teachings on Awareness ‘right on’ and excellent. But for myself, I understand them within the context of Solar Awareness. I always find it amusing when ‘light’ is used metaphorically, while at the same instant it’s the downpouring photons that allow us the ability to read about it in the first place. “The Way of Light” could be the name of our sun/galaxy/universe! I guess it is, when you think “Milky Way.”

Thanks again, J, for inspiration!

I know - same old theme but...

In reply to an interesting posting I wrote:

Dear W:
I much enjoyed your posting, and am impressed with your work with young juvenile offenders. You're a real bodhisattvatudinous dude! I live in San Francisco, and as you point out, it's embarrassingly rich in terms of sangha meditation groups -- despite which I find myself doing my own thing because I tend to snore like a steam engine above the 4th jhana.

I start from Ramana's:

> "That which is not present in deep dreamless sleep is not real."

One indication of deep dreamless sleep is a fully resonant SNORE on the inhale and exhale. For this reason, I snore as much as possible while awake and practicing being aware of being aware of being aware of being aware... zzzzzzzzz (but smiling also)

I'm now calling the snore/snarl mantra "The Lion's Song" although I also see a similarity to the Tibetan Vajra mantra (OM on the inhale, AH on the hold, and HUNG on the exhale) I'm basically focused on exercises that anyone can do easily - I call it the OBEATA (Oceanic Bliss Easily Available To All) Project and currently they include:

The Lion's Song:
Smiling
On the inhale: purr/snarl, resonating all the way from the septum down into the trachea.
On the exhale: gargle a French 'r' but allow the tongue tip also to vibrate, and the lips if they went to go along for the ride.

The trachea resides just behind where the aorta enters the heart. Resonating the trachea resonates the aorat/heart, and in turn the bloodstream transmits the vibration all the way to the extremities. Ten good snarls and my fingers and toes start to tingle. Of course you mileage may vary, and the more I do it the more sensitive I seem to get. But you'll definitely find out why the lamas love to sing 'way-down-there.'

Exercise #2: the Voluntary Blink
Watching H.H. The Dalai Lama interviewed, I noticed he blinked about four times more than I do. So I decided to mirror his blinks. I then realized that my thoughts stopped for a micro-instant every time I blinked. I Google on research in the blinks brought a U.K. scientist who had studied blinks using EEG/MRI stuff. He agreed that
'consciousness shuts down for a millisecond when we blink.' Later I had feedback from a Vipassana/Dzogchen instructor that some lamas use blinks to break out of consciousness states.

Exercise #3: Nursing on the Uvula
I do 200 'tugs' on the uvula/soft palette first thing upon awakening because it puts me back into sleep states but conscious enough to enjoy the rapture. This leads nicely into the Lion's Song before breakfast.

Exercise #4: For social situations, it's important to develop a subvocal version. Actually the baby 'sleep-nursing' cluck works well, as does the 'guh-guh-guh' in the back of the throat - probably where the word God evolved. 'La-la-la' subvocally on the heartbeat also is just beautiful, probably where the word 'Allah' came from. I also use the word "EEAHOOWEHEH" - the breath resonating all vowels, which is probably where the Jewish YVWH came from. I keep thinking the Middle East hassle is an ancient argument about whether God's name is the breath or the heartbeat, although both can be combined very nicely: IN: Yahhhh OUT: weh-la-la-la-la

Recently I found a Christian site (actually my sister, an Anglican nun, reports that it's more Gnostic but whaddo I know). He suggests 'Father' subvocally on the inhale, and "Peace" on the exhale subvocally, but does point out that it's the 'UH' and 'EE' seed syllables that are most important. I've been trying these out, and they also are very good.
http://www.chrmysticaloutreach.com/pages/1/index.htm

I guess EVERYTHING is very good once you've found your groove. But I am definitely interested in finding the easiest possible methods to achieve high bliss absorptions (Jhana states) because I sincerely believe that once you feel very very good you're gonna experience great empathy and compassion for all beings you encounter. That's all the Void contains - compassion. So you don't need the precepts and the preliminaries and the ancient banana leaf slats or whatever. Go straight for the bliss, but once you've found it, always keep going and don't get hung up. The path is the goal, although I prefer to think of it as a dance through a flowery meadow.