No typo Response: Emotions Sent: Sunday, January 28, 2001 10:06 AM

[Guest guest]

In the practice of yoga, the main intent is to "isolate the seer" - the

subject "I." Before this awakening, the seer or sense of "I" is focused by

the mind to the various thoughts, images, sensations, emotions, energies

appearing in the mind. Therefore, we think "I am these thoughts and images"

which we try to understand and grapple with and seek sources for in the

process of building an identity.

 

This identity of the thoughts, images and impressions and the sense of "I"

is what is overcome when the "I" or seer is isolated. At that time the seer

abides in itself and automatically relinquishes attention to the idea of

identity between the images appearing in consciousness, i.e., the constant

flow of thoughts and impressions and sensations and emotions.

 

You abide in single Truth. That Truth dissolves the mistaken impression in

the mind that the "I" sense is related to the minds images through an

identity. The images and activities still continue, but something new has

happened, an impalpable experience, where at one and the same time, the

sense of "I" is distilled and dissolved and sucked in from its mix with the

images appearing in the mind, and a radiance of light shines through and

beyond all images seen in effect, at every level causing them to disengage

from attention.

 

Therefore in all the practices of yoga, one always maintains a sense of

enquiry into from where the seeing arises. It's less important to consider

from where a thought or emotion of idea or sensation may arise, as this may

simply bring one to the root of a thought, which is to say another thought

or idea, even the sensation of stillness. But whether the mind is very still

or very active, whether the energies and visions appearing in the mind are

powerful or subtle, there should always be the enquiry into where the seeing

arises, as this seer, which lights the body and mind and the universe in al

its dimensions from waking to dreaming and deep sleep to superconscious, is

at the substratum. It is the "I" of our "I."

 

There is a simple story of Shiva and his wife Parvati (also known as Uma).

Shiva represents the dissolution of the Universe and all that is seen, and

as

such the eternal abiding in and as the Self. Parvati was very much into

practicing yoga and meditation. One day, she came to Shiva and told him

that she had just had the experience of a million million suns, to which

Shiva replied, "who had the experience?" At once she understood that the

realization she sought was within the seer and returned to enquire from

where the seeing origins, and in the process realized her single all

pervasive Self.

 

In the practice of yoga, the body and mind begin to charge and polarize with

the electromagnetic balance in the heart. With continued practice, the

power of the polarization and the magnetic field becomes more and more

powerful, more and more in balance, more and more pure. If there is an

enquiry maintained as to from where the sense of "I" - the subject "I" - the

seer and seeing originate, it will be felt to be in the heart slightly to

the right, where we point, when we say "I." This is the source of all

Light. The Yoga Sutras of Patenjali also advise a meditation of abiding is

the self effulgent light in the heart. The heart referred to is the

Hrdayam, were Hrd literally means "That which sucks in everything" and ayam

"This is that place." Thus, as the charge in the body builds and the

enquiry is made into the origin of ones experiences, suddenly the knowledge

of one's single "I" awakens and there is a very single sense of abiding in

simple natural Truth, a silence which is unrelated to the silence of the

mind begins to prevail and the tendency of the mind to shift the sensation

of "I" from one thought to the next to the next always trying to hold to the

varying images as one identity, ceases and is replaced with the pulsation of

"I" as "I."

 

To the extent that one might be familiar with the first and second

Commandments given by "I AM" to Moses, it is almost as though these

Commandments have taken hold where not only does this single "I" disallow

images to appear before it, but it will also not allow the use of the word

or

even the sense of "I" to be linked to rising thoughts and images.

 

This experience is called "Non-Dual" in most religions, because the "I" is

discovered to be always abiding in Itself as undifferentiated Light

illumining the whole universe and all planes of consciousness throughout

time at once. The idea of it may seem almost incomprehensible or

unthinkable, yet by enquiring into from where the seer arises in all one's

practices, this Truth emerges as single awareness, without causes or

conditions.

 

Hope this is helpful.

 

Pieter