Welcome to Sri John Logan & Lotus of Heart

[Guest guest]

John Logan <johnrloganis> wrote in his introduction:

> >

> > My favorite form of meditation is "watching the

> > grass

> > grow"...until there is no awareness of self, just

> > attention to what is.

> >

> > I look forward to sharing.

 

_______________

 

Welcome on board, John-Ji.

 

I would like to join you and "watch the grass grow".

 

Thereafter, we will shift to watching our hair grow, the cells die,

our getting old. Right now, I am in my office watching two of my

colleagues fight over who of them should get the Company-provided

car. Both are ferocious and ready to get at the throat of each

other. Free entertainment – provided by the Lord. Beautiful to

stand apart and watch, watch and watch and then ask the

question: "Who is watching?! That sends a wave of condensed joy up

the spine. Watch it go up. Who is watching?

 

That reminds me. It was about ten years ago. I was in my native

town in South India visiting a Vedanta teacher in his last days. He

needed help to move about, was almost completely blind and had to

strain hard to listen to what others said. I asked him how he was

doing. He couldn't hear me. He strained his ears and one of his

aides repeated my question in his ear. He heard, paused, smiled and

murmured: "Am just watching the body die".

 

The watching never ends, the watcher never ends. One who has

realized this does not find any difference between the watcher,

watching and the watched. Everything merges into one whole mass of

condensed joy – concentrated awareness. Doesn't matter if it goes up

the spine, down the spine, twinkles in the stars or falls as rain

drops on yon distant mountaintops.

 

I don't have to tell you all this, John. You have seen the worst

with that throat cancer. I am sure you "watched" it then and that is

why the Lord granted you His Grace to share the "joy of watching"

with us all.

 

_______________

 

I should thank our Moderator, Ramji, for raising the "Lotus of the

Heart" from a mere physiological reference point to the Ultimate

Narayana. That is the only way we can reach the very heart of the

Geetha without getting entangled in pedestrian translations.

 

The chakra locations on the body in Kundalini yoga have varying

degrees of tactility. Most practitioners excite these locations

either by applying external pressure or by performing bandhas.

Mooladhaara, Swaadishtaana, Manipoora and Vishuddhi charkas can thus

be easily felt through bandhas (contractions). The same applies to

Aajna and Sahasraara but at subtler levels. However, anaahata near

the heart is quite unlike all of them. Here what can help us is

that "I" thought as Harshaji points out.

 

I should think that the "Lotus of the Heart", the "Cave of the Heart"

and "Anaahata" are one and the same to begin with. However, with the

dawning of realization, these references lose their physiological

significance and merge with that Ultimate Narayana, that all-knowing

Consciousness.

 

Thus, Kundalini yoga is just a methodology and the body comprising

the six chakras (or more) is just an effective, tactile model. For a

realized yogi, the model and chakras do not matter any more. For

him, only Mother Kundalini as the one and only Consciousness remains!

 

A Kundalini adept once chided me by pointing out that each and every

cell on the body is a chakra if we really discerned. Why limit them

to just six, he asked. He is absolutely right and I would like to

improve on him by saying that everything that I am aware of is a

chakra. Let us, therefore, begin to "watch" all the charkas and see

our dear Mother Kundalini in all of them. She remains encompassing

the watcher, watched and watching as Consciousness Absolute.

 

Thus, no yoga, raja, kriya, or kundalini, is a means in itself to

reach the Goal. Knowledge that the watcher, watching and watched is

one and the same should take place for these methods to bear fruit.

Without that Knowledge, any yoga practice is akin to a useless

experiment of creating an electric circuit without connecting it to a

bulb.

 

For one who has that Knowledge, there is no need to await the fall of

the body or to direct his pranas to a particular point. For him, the

pranas are spontaneously and effortlessly directed in that Ultimate

Direction. As he has surrendered himself unto Him (sarva dharmaan

parithyaajya), it is upto the Lord to remind him about his "departure

time" and ensure that he entertains the thought of the Supreme at

that moment, if He so desires. The Jnaani cares two hoots!

 

There is a story about a renowned Malayaali poet who translated the

Ramayana into Malayalam. Someone of authority had ordered him to

compose a poem praising Goddess Durga and the poet was moving about

without doing anything as though oblivious of the onus placed on

him. His failure to complete the job would invite the wrath of the

authority and certain punishment. When repeatedly reminded of all

this by his worried friends, the poet, a devotee of the Devi,

jokingly remarked: "After all, it is about Her. Let Her write if She

wants. I don't care." That is surrender. Of course, the poem was

written and appreciated. The poet lived long thereafter to write

more and win popular acclaim. The point is, when I am given fully

unto Her, She should do things for me. I have no more doership; so,

I cannot do.

 

References to yogic practices are not unique to Bhagawath Geetha

alone. Sankara's "Saundarya Lahari", written in praise of the Devi,

abounds in them, to which interpreters have read very mundane to

highly esoteric meanings. But, to a discerning eye, the Devi as

Supreme Consciousness is the Real Lahari of "Saundarya Lahari"

despite the yantras, mantras and interpretations. To him, all the

universes are a big intoxication and he is too fully drunk of it to

worry about particular chakras or pranas.

 

So, let us join John in "watching".

 

Pranams.

 

Madathil Nair

[Guest guest]

Namaste Madathil,

Many thanks for the care you put into the posting and

I hope that your colleagues have settled by now, we

have enough rajas belting around the world at the

moment. Your following words reminded me of one of

the great poems of Rumi...I am sure I have posted it

before but I usually leave off the last part so here

it is more completely than before maybe. It is a

description of 'Fana', this is the death described by

Ramana of his childhood experience:

 

‘What is to be done O Moslems?

For I do not recognise myself.

I am neither Christian nor Jew

Nor Jabr nor Moslem.

I am not of the East, nor of the West,

Nor of land, nor of sea.

…………………

My place is placeless,

My trace is traceless.

`Tis neither body nor soul

For I belong to the soul of the Beloved.

I have put duality away, I have seen

That the two worlds are one.

One I seek, One I know, One I see,

One I call.

He is the first, the last,

The outward and the inward.

I know none other except ‘Ya hu’

And ‘Ya man hu.’

I am intoxicated with love’s cup;

The two worlds have passed out of my ken.

I have no business save carouse and revelry.

If once in my life I spent a moment without thee

>From that time and from that hour I repent of my life.

If once in the world I win a moment with thee

I will trample on both worlds, I will dance in triumph

for ever.

O Shamsi Tabriz, I am so drunken in this world,

That except for drunkenness and revelry

I have no tale to tell.’

 

Om sri ram jai jai ram

 

ken knight

 

 

 

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[Guest guest]

Greetings Madathil Nair,

 

Thank you for your kind welcome.

You have been one with my awareness and experience, your empathy is

great and accurate.

> That reminds me. It was about ten years ago. I was in my native

> town in South India visiting a Vedanta teacher in his last days.

He

> needed help to move about, was almost completely blind and had to

> strain hard to listen to what others said. I asked him how he was

> doing. He couldn't hear me. He strained his ears and one of his

> aides repeated my question in his ear. He heard, paused, smiled

and

> murmured: "Am just watching the body die".

 

This story means a great deal to me, as I did, indeed, have a

premenition of just that kind of watching, just before my surgery. I

realized that being born is the beginning of dying and that there is

nothing to fear because I have been "dying" all my life.

 

> The watching never ends, the watcher never ends. One who has

> realized this does not find any difference between the watcher,

> watching and the watched. Everything merges into one whole mass of

> condensed joy – concentrated awareness. Doesn't matter if it goes

up

> the spine, down the spine, twinkles in the stars or falls as rain

> drops on yon distant mountaintops.

 

Yes.

 

Namaste,

John L.