THE PRACTICE WHICH EDJI SHARED WITH
ME A FEW YEARS AGO...
since it came up in Satsang today via the chat window.
Edward Muzika taught me this practice when I visited him a few
years ago.
(Spoiler alert: It's nothing
different from what he usually teaches in general terms. However, it is the
"gift that keeps on giving," and I do it every day.)
a)
Sit in meditation posture (straight back, eyes semi-closed, in a chair or
semi-lotus or whatever posture you can manage. Actually, I prefer to close my
eyes all the way.)
b)
Observe the sensations around you--sounds in the room, feelings of your clothes
on your skin, smells, breezes, etc.
c)
Observe the sensations inside you--heartbeat, breathing, sounds of stomach,
etc.
d)
Feel your sense of being a person--of being present--the conviction that you
exist. ("I am.") Locate it in your body.
e)
Move your presence into that feeling. Watch it, be in it.
f)
Follow that presence down to where it started... let your awareness sink down
that path. (Same as recommended by Nisargadatta, Ramana and Robert.)
g)
Remain present in whatever comes up.
My own notes on this practice:
1.
On days when I've had a good sleep and some caffeine, if I do this practice
earlier in the day I don't sink down quite as far, and remain aware of mental
chatter, images, emotions, ideas, and tracers of all sorts of fleeting images
and sounds like a TV or radio scanning through the stations. But the usual
sense of "me" is not there. I am just the awareness of these things.
(These sessions can go really long... from 45-60 min.) And often I do drop down
further after a while of this.
2.
On days when I practice at the end of the day and didn't get enough sleep, the
practice starts and I pop out when I'm nodding off into sleep (could be as
short as 5-10 minutes.)
3.
Every time I do this the initial phase of closing eyes, observing sensations
and so on lasts maybe 1 minute. Then there is a feeling of pleasure and relief
as the consciousness sinks down toward Ramana's "heart center" on the
right side of the chest (could be different for different people, I suppose.
Edji was recommending sinking to the "hara" or Japanese gut center of
Zen, but I didn't get much out of trying it this way.)
4.
After sinking down to the heart center which seems to be made of light and love
and entering it, there is nothing. No impressions, no sounds, no images, no
feelings, no consciousness, no me, no world, no bliss. It follows what Edji
describes--seems to be the absolute ground of consciousness. I set a timer of
30 minutes for these sessions, but usually, if I've had a reasonable amount of
sleep but had a full day, I'll pop out just before the timer goes off. The
feeling of time completely evaporates between entering the heart center and
popping out again. As I re-emerge I have no idea who I am, where I am, or what
time of day it is. Then as Edji described in waking after sleep, the memories
of who I am and where I am, what time of day it is etc. emerge as if I was awaking
from a very deep sleep. But I know I haven't been asleep--something somehow has
been measuring this whole process, and knows I'm back awake as an individual
again.
5.
After this I feel calm, relieved, tired, and reassured on a basic level that
all the anxieties of the waking world and daily struggle to survive, provide
for my loved ones, maintain health, job, art, chores, etc. are relative. It is
also obvious that simply existing, being part of God's expression in the field
of consciousness, is laudable and worthwhile... it's quite different from my
usual feeling that I have to justify my existence by doing something. After a
few years of practicing this way, subtle sensitivities develop more and more,
but they're hard to describe because they're, well... subtle. However, I could
say that I'm more aware of the fleeting nature of consciousness, more aware of
what other people are thinking and how they are feeling, what their anxieties
and beliefs about the world are, and I trust my own gut more and more. Finally,
the gratitude to God that Edji mentioned is there, but I won't talk about it
too much. It's best to experience this directly.
THANKS
Edji!!!!
I
hope that was helpful! Thanks for asking, Angela. Cheers, Max T. Powers, Enrique Umana, Andrew
Hargrove, Syndria Mecham,
Dinesh, Arvydas, Sergey, Keith, Michael Kujawa and please forgive me if I've
left anyone out but I look forward to our continued conversations!
Matthew
Brown, Toronto
November
20, 2016
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