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

January 12, 2004
J. wrote: Hello Ramon and welcome to the JSG. As for your question regarding tongue placement, as revealed in Tibetan art, and how it was revealed in Hesse's book "Siddartha:" the canonical texts of the yogas typically recommend placing the tip of the tongue at the roof of the mouth for connecting with divine energy (Shakti). And numerous Tibetan text say pretty much the same thing, so my guess is the Tibetan art that shows the tongue protruding was probably trying to reveal this tongue to the roof of the mouth placement, but the art was a bit too primitive to reveal it. I would bet that Hesse, who wrote "Siddartha" when he was about 20, was probably not a yoga master, but somewhat romantically enamored of some of the yoga literature he encountered in his youth. Perhaps Hesse saw a Tibetan thangka, and not being a meditation master, thought it was best to have the tongue protruding from the mouth. Placing the tongue between the teeth can be somewhat unfortunate. From time to time I have kriyas that cause my mouth to clamp shut abruptly when I am very deep in meditation. I have on occasion had my tongue in the way, and thus bit my tongue while in deep meditation. Let us just say I have found biting one's tongue while in deep meditation is not conducive to a deep practice, thus keeping one's tongue well out of the way, say tucked safely at the roof of one's mouth, is wise.
Ho, J: Thank you for the tongue feedback! I'm not so advanced that I have to worry about kriyas, and I personally have evolved a variation of the Tibetan method of balancing the in-breath between the nose and around the edges of the tongue as I hold the tip between my teeth. This allows a certain isometric 'pull' on the diaphragm muscles as well, which seems to connect the energy currents from the hara area into the anahata heart center. The entering air creates a hiss that I can increase in volume by adding a smile. This adds the 'eee' of the goddess "Eee-seees," a variation of the great Aditi (Ah-dee-tee).
If all of this is too non-Buddhist for this list, let me know. Perhaps I'd be better off on your kundalini one, although I'm not into the serpent power per se. Just an average chap who likes to "feed the baby" his amrita bottle before settling down for a good mind-melt.
Actually my main practices include sungazing (there's a good sungazers' list that started recently, to my delight, at http://groups.yahoo.com/group/sungazing/ and a blend of Mantak Chia's and, with the encouragement of the Bhairava Tantra, a uvula and soft palate exercise that seems to increase the prana flow. Even better, I pinch my nostrils and inhale against the pinch, so to speak, which brings a kind of contraction of both stomach and chest as well as massaging the pituitary. Very powerful, this one, so be careful! Five of these clears my nose very nicely.
Always Within Her Waterfall of Radiance,

-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-== January 18, 2003

Dear D:
A second encounter with Ska Maria Pastora -- I took some notes, which of course are somewhat garbled. Spent the whole three hours on earphones listening to the ocean and seagulls.
Great Divine Mother EXHALE: T haw-wa-wooosh-nee-
INHALE: Hahhhhh

Ska Maria Pastora arrives with great love and nobility -- with a retinue. I found myself begging her PLEASE never to leave me again! NEVER! She smiled lovingly and benignly, and again repeated her previous offer to remain if a proper 'seat' was prepared for her -- or perhaps 'caballo' would be a better term. Or 'burro?' It reminds me of an essay I've been polishing about Eeyore.
For my next meditation with Her I think I will have a friend in the next room. and try THREE dropperfuls. The Sage is definitely a new level of insight.

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

January 26, 2004

A very smart German theologian once said:
The first generation is led by the Spirit or Ideal.
The second always has the good example
The third still will have the memory (of the good example)
But the fourth will be stuck with all the rules and regulations made before them.

A dear friend added:
The fifth consolidate position and institutionalize
The sixth blackmail the emperor into making him Pontifex Maximus.

I had quite a good evening meditation -- still with a tendency to 'scatter,' but with occasional depths and one very good insight: what's holding me back is the fact that I have restless eyes, and restless eyes lead to a restless mind. So I'm trying a combination of softening and widening them behind closed lids (this comes, oddly, from Iyengar) and using my raised cheeks (in a 'high smile') to hold them still. I'm applying a little effort at the beginning, holding the focus to a 'dot' on the eyelids and for good measure adding my new Dark Zen suggestion to turn the awareness to the place that is prior to the arising of the breath. That really worked very well!

I think I suffer from 'alert eyes' that are always on the look-out. I was told that by the woman who put me onto a couple of EEG units back a year or more ago at Post Trauma Treatment Associates, Walnut Creek. She said, 'You mind is sort of like a gopher popping out of its hole for a look-around and then going back. I wanted to try out the so-called ROSHI device, and hers was the closest one I could fine. It cost me $160, but was worth it -- by which I mean it did put me into an elevated state.

-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- January 30, 2004

"To travel far, you must feed your burro."
- Sancho Panza

Even if Sancho did not say it in Don Quixote I'm sure he thought it!

Recenty I wrote to someone on line:
"... we are all, to some extent or another, abused children. And I so much admire the way you are opening up and allowing the hurt and the past to drain out of you. The amazing thing to me is that it is where we have been the most deeply wounded that our deepest understandings ultimately arise.
. . .
"I think what I'm experiencing is that I must 'feed the donkey' in myself -- i.e. discover the comfort zone for the lower self that will allow Grace to descend into all of me. Does that make sense? We each must find the hungry areas in ourselves that require nourishing and allow them to 'safely graze' before we can melt into the Great Mother's arms.
Yes?"

In the Now where we all are one.

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