Email December 12 2006

Earl asked:
> It appears that you equate deep dreamless sleep to "no-thought-in-an-awake
> state." Is that right?
>
R:
Hi Earl:
Just the other day I experienced a few moments awake during which I did not
know who I was, accompanied by a delicious feeling of total freedom -- sort
of surfing on the edge of consciousness. I've had this happen once or twice
before, and I do equate this with the deep dreamless sleep state. If by 'no-
thought-in-an-awake state' you include this loss of a sense of separate self,
then yes, I do equate the two. Although I am sure there are many many
depths beyond the experience I describe.

December 13, 2006
Just elaborating a little further on this asleep-while-awake thread:

In the Morningstar belief statement, we recognized the attributes of the
Beloved as: naked, nameless, homeless and harmless.
http://www.raysender.com/MStrfaith.html
Each of this attributes could be discussed at length, but I'll just say that
'nameless' I think includes that experience that I mentioned earlier --
awake without being conscious of 'who you specifically are' in the body.

The other attributes I think also contain similar lessons.
Hm, maybe it's time for me to work up a page or two in comments.

. Later, 'gators,



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Email December 10 2006
Miscellaneous items

jax wrote:
> Essentially, the Light Body is referred to as "Tselem" (Hebrew) or
> the Image of God as created in Man, the soul of Man.

R:
Re: 'Tselem,' we were visited by friends with their 6-month-old grandson
David. He likes to point to an electric light and say "TS," obviously his
name for light. His grandmother's Jewish. Of course his acute hearing
may allow him to liSTen to the faint sizzle of the light bulb.

I think babies tend to evolve speech through a process of mantric seed
syllables, growing through the various stages of language development the
way they grew from fish to land creature in the womb.
Haekel's "Ontogeny recapitulates phylogeny," although proven wrong, still
resonates. Children certainly go through the various historical stages of in
their growing-up: world experienced as self, world as self-mother, world as
family, world as tribe, world as generation, world as nation, world as all life,
to world experienced as Self.

-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
R:
I figure that untrammeled nature is the Garden of Eden scintillating in
laughter and bliss. If we do well as a human, we then can enter the Garden and
incarnate as anything we enjoy being - tree, flower, animal. Sort of the opposite of
the classical view (where 'failed' humans incarnate as animals, etc.).

-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=

Wilber's Pre-Trans Fallacy, and blinking

jax wrote:
> We can also utilize "mind" and logic to clarify confusion in our feelings,
> view of reality and self. From being "irrational" we need to become
> "rational" first and a bit more objective. When this step is skipped,
> Dzogchen practice can cause more harm than good.

Ken Wilber discusses this as the 'Pre/Trans Fallacy.'
[Quote from SEX, ECOLOGY, SPIRITUALITY by Ken Wilber]
The essence of the pre/trans fallacy is itself fairly simple: since both
prerational states and transrational states are, in their own ways,
nonrational, they appear similar or even identical to the untutored eye. And
once pre and trans are confused, then one of two fallacies occurs:

In the first, all higher and transrational states are reduced to lower and
prerational states. Genuine mystical or contemplative experiences, for
example, are seen as a regression or throwback to infantile states of
narcissism, oceanic adualism, indissociation, and even primitive autism.
This is, for example, precisely the route taken by Freud in The Future of an
Illusion.
[end quote]
For more, see http://www.praetrans.com/en/ptf.html
I'm not sure I agree completely with Wilber about this, inasmuch as I have
personally experienced a linkage between what I considered transrational and
regressive states. But Wilber is always insightful and gives good input.

Earl wrote:

>There is however a practice that I have used to demonstrate how mind can be
>placed in a position where judgment is impossible. That is in a continuous
>motion of eyes in a changing of what one looks at. Mind" response time cannot
>follow rapid eye movement. That helps beginners "see" what a non-thinking mind
>(or nearly non-thinking mind) experience is like. It is always helpful to
>present a condition where "success" is easy because then, one can reinforce
>that system and build on it. Then again, it is what ever makes it work for you.

I use blinking in a similar manner, ever since watching H.H. the D.L. blink
about 4x more than I do on a TV interview. This led to email with a
researcher in London who discovered via EEG scans that consciousness shuts
down for an instant when we blink. Also Howard Cohen, who runs a vipassana
meditation group here in San Francisco, mentioned that there are Tibetan
lamas who use blinking to break out of consciousness states.

I guess EMDR (Eye Motion Desensitization) also relates to this.

-=-=-=-=-=-
Christine wrote:

> then there is the opportunity to relax and open the heart.
>
> It appears for many of us, that in order to let go of the stranglehold of
> personal story, you first have to see it, know it, work with it.

I dunno, Christine, if all that is necessary. For me it's all been about
melting into the heart and just using my head the way I use Google - as an
information source. I have a close relative who's been in Freudian analysis
for at least 40 years and I don't see where it's done more that get her
'stuck' deeper. And this is a person who devotes her life to one of the
traditional contemplative paths.

I imagine my mind melting like candle wax and dripping whatever leftover
'me' there is into my heart.
(Of course resonating the trachea like a postprandial puma seems to help!)

Always,
R
"That which is not present in deep dreamless sleep is not real."
Ramana Maharshi
"The relaxed, sounding breath is the self-arising (relaxed) manifestation of
deep, dreamless sleep. Do it while awake and -- guess what happens?"
Ramon

________________________

jax wrote:

> While incarnate, that "point of Light" is our "head chakra" (white in color
> and radiant). It's ultimate center, the Absolute, is within our Heart
> Center. In practice we "return" our consciousness from whence it arose,
> back to the Absolute at the Heart Center. When this occurs, we experience
> the "mystical" nature of the Absolute and begin to see through this Absolute
> "Eye of the Heart". Enlightened seeing...

And of course every night in deep sleep we return from whence we arose as
consciousness drops into our hearts. The thing is to learn to retain
awareness while this occurs.

There is another way to do this, however, in my humble opinion. And that is
to learn to 'fall asleep' in one's awake state (instead of the other way
around, stay awake in deep sleep).

I can stay in 'no thought' by blinking to break out of consciousness states,
but of course this is 'doing something' and thus causal and conditional, not
always a bad thing but not 'self-arising.' I do think, however, that the
resonant sleep breath can be described as 'self-arising' inasmuch as it's a
relaxation and not a 'doing-something.' I've raised this question here
before, and would be eager for comments.

Thanks - and by the way, Ken Wilber is in the hospital, so do keep him in
your prayers/meditations. I don't know the cause, but have read earlier that
he suffers from some sort of environmental ailment he picked up years ago at
Lake Tahoe.

As for Ken's Pre/Trans Fallacy argument (viewing pre-rational regressive
states as trans-rational) I wonder how that fits with Sri Ramana's
statement, "Go back the way you came," which I do identify with completely.



====================================================================

Email December 2 2006

Phil wrote:
> Lunatic...Solatic ey Ramon
> Its a phase, a craze, I'm crazy for you baby and its no phase, I crave
> my craze, what's the derivation? my dictionary don't have one. I look
> up words and still mispell them heheheh I may or may not be crazy but
> I is a contrairey ;~> at times

Er, what're you smokin', Phil? I want some.

Re 'in God's image,' I've been thinking about fractals, and how they
duplicate themselves - same pattern - making larger and larger versions of
the original but somehow everything out there is made this way - landscapes,
trees, etc. If it's a 'descending order' (or ascending), then by God, God
_must_ on some level look just like Phil Morningstar, although with a
longer, whiter beard? Or just like Pammy Whammy, yes indeed!

So up there on level 457,600,640.2 there's a fractal of Morningstar Ranch
with all of us sitting around shooting the shit - especially since it seems
that all time forever is happening simultaneously.

I think I'll go laugh at the sky for a while.

Happy hyperactive-running-around-because-the sun-is-disappearing-paranoia-
time.

Dab a little badaba on your earlobes before venturing forth just to avoid
consumeritis contamination.

Badaba!

R

P.S. I'm very stoked for two reasons:
1) the query e-mail I wrote to one of the 'happiness' researchers mentioned
in an S. F. Chronicle article was kindly and enthusiastically received, and
she's gonna spread the news around for me and see who's interested.
2) at a party last night, I made two new friends who both are into purring.
Yee Hah! The meme is spreading!

i.e. 30 good purr-snarl-snores and my mind melts like candle wax right into
my heart. Once in my heart, I still can access my brain as a sort of
in-the-body Google.



====================================================================

Email December 1 2006

Dear Dr. Paul (Ekman):
I thought I'd catch you up on the status of my mind-body
exercises - I'm that guy with the adapted street hockey mask who
lunched with you back some years ago. Since then I've happily retired
from the Noe Valley Ministry's administrator position, although my wife
Judy and I still continue producing our 'Odd Monday' (odd calendar
Mondays) series, now in its sixth year, that offers free admission to
readings and talks by various august and or/creative individuals to a small
but dedicated audience. I'd also invite you to speak, but I think your
reputation would bring more listeners than our 50-person capacity allows
and the local fire station captain would caution us.
I'm so happy that in your case you decided NOT to retire, but instead
continue the wonderful work you're doing training teachers and others.
Also we heard Alan Wallace speak at Spirit Rock a few months ago and
understand that you both continue your involvement in H.H. the D.L,'s
terrific Mind-Spirit project.
Anyway, I read a Chronicle article a few days ago on 'happiness research,'
and sent a query letter to one of the researchers mentioned, Prof. Sonya
Lyubomirsky -- and received an interested reply! It's rare that I connect so
well via an unsolicited email, so on the crest of this success I thought I'd
once more intrude on your busy schedule by copying you what I sent to her.
Here goes:
-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
In the 1960s, a hippie girl would ask passers-by, "How much bliss can you
tolerate?" That phrase echoed in my mind ever since, especially once I began
to understand how much bliss tolerance levels vary from individual to
individual. The way I view it, when we hit our bliss tolerance 'ceiling' is
when our mind begins to wander. In meditation, it's the point where we 'lose
the meditation object' and begin to wonder what's for supper, etc. Anyway, I
decided to attempt to chart bliss levels in some manner.
With the help of Dr. John Curtis Gowan's diagrams from his book "Trance,
Art & Creativity," (see http://www.csun.edu/edpsy/Gowan/ for an online
copy), I was able to create correlations between various spiritual paths -
some connections admittedly an intuitive leap between two states I know
little about.
Seehttp://www.raysender.com/gowanchart.html
At the same time, I noted that Tibetan monks chant on their 'chest tones'
- a very low pitch. When I tried it myself. I realized I was resonating my
trachea, and then moved to what I called 'the full-circle OM' - humming on
both the inhale and exhale. This in turn led to an attempt to purr - or at
least a human equivalent. After some practice, I've become quite adept at
what perhaps sounds more like clearing my throat and an exhaled groan, but I
note that with an added smile I can make the same sound in and out without
changing mouth position (the smile turns it more into a 'snarl'). Ten or so
'snarls' these days trigger a tingling in my fingers and toes that I think
occurs because the lower trachea resides right behind where the aorta and
upper vena cava enter the heart. I think the vibration from the trachea is
transferred to the bloodstream, blood an excellent transmitter of sound the
same way that water is. This 'inner massage' seems to dissolve lateral body
tensions ('armoring'), and to liberate 'frozen' energy flow within the body.
This purring exercise drops my awareness from my head into my cardiac
center in a very pleasant manner. It's as if I'm regaining a mind-body
connection that I haven't experienced since being a small child.
Anyway, if someone were to ask me the easiest way to increase their bliss
tolerance (or to 'pursue their happiness'), I would suggest to them the
following exercise:
SMILING widely
On the inhale through the nose, vibrate the septum, glottis, uvula, and as
far down the trachea as you can: "HONNNNNNNG"
On the exhale through the mouth, gargle a French 'R': "KRUHHHH"

Sometimes I'm able to do the exhaled sound through the nose, but it varies
depending on the amount of moisture held in the back of the throat.

This exercise also duplicates the 'resonant sleep breath' or snore
triggered by a relaxation of the airway muscles. I believe that in deep
sleep we experience unconsciously the 'deepest happiness' available to us
while alive, and that the high bliss states triggered by meditation occur by
learning to remain conscious while the body relaxes more and more deeply
through dream into dreamless sleep. However instead of approaching these
states by the traditional method (remaining 'awake while the body sleeps'),
I feel I'm doing it the other way 'round -- learning to allow the body to
'fall asleep while I remain awake.'

I realize I'm imposing on your time and good nature at some length, and
also that the topic is very subjective, with of course the only possible
proof of its efficacy its potential replication by others. So far my best
'subjects' have been 3 to 5 year olds who will sing "Old MacDonald Had A
Farm" with me while we concentrate on septum-rattling pig grunts until they
melt in laughter. Well, actually a few adults 'got it' on the first try, but
so far they're few and far between. [I should rephrase that last comment,
because just last night at a party I met two people who have been trying out
purring like a cat and where very happy to take it a step further.] I
remember 'talking on the inhale' ('creaky voice') as a child and, trying it
now, I can feel how happy the vocal cords are to vibrate 'backwards' from
their usual manner -- very relaxing.

I also have spotted parallels with some mantra use - especially with the
Tibetan OM AH HUNG (vajra mantra), although I do the 'OM' on the inhale,
the 'AH' on the held breath, and 'HUNG' on the exhale, with appropriate
resonance of the airways.

Anyway, I'm certain I'm onto an easy track to extreme happiness, at least
for this particular individual. By that I mean that I have 'stopped
searching' on my spiritual path. Ken Wilber might argue that I'm stuck on
the physical-prana energy level and not climbing up the ladder to the
subtler energy stages, but I must say that, at least for the moment, I'm
VERY SATISFIED because I can melt into my heart any time. Sometimes I
wonder if I'm not just repairing a mind-body connection I lost very early in
life due to a traumatic loss of my mother in the Spanish Civil War and the
reason others don't 'get it' is because they already have that connection,
although I don't notice the bubbling joy and smiles in others that it seems
to trigger for me.

If you have any advice, links or pointers to research in this area, I'd be
most grateful to connect with anyone, etc.
Thanks for your patience,

RS
'Ten death rattles a day keep the coroner at bay."

-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
[End Quote]

Wishing you and your family a relaxed and delicious return of the sun,

Ramon
from "A Net of Jewels"
"That which is not present in deep dreamless sleep is not real."
Ramana Maharshi
"The relaxed, sounding breath is the self-arising (causeless) manifestation
of deep, dreamless sleep. Do it while awake and -- guess what happens?"
Ramon