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#1027 Sunday, April 1,
2002
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==Gene Poole==
JERRY KATZ
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BOB ROSE from Nonduality Salon
Soham meditation technique
There was a recent post that pointed to practice. For
those who include meditation in their practice, Soham,
along with OM are commonly considered the "highest", or
some similar adjective, of all techniques. Enjoy!
Soham The Bible tells us that in the beginning there was
the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was
God. But in the beginning, there were no words, no
languages, or even sounds of humans or animals. So what
was the Word that was in the beginning? This has been a
great mystery, but like the solution to many mysteries,
the answer has been right under our nose all along. And
that is Soham.
Soham is referred to as the "Mahamantra", the Greatest
Mantra, and is considered along with Om to be the most
powerful of all techniques. This was the first
meditation technique, both in antiquity and in our own
lives. The ancient cavemen, before they had invented
language or fire, would sit in their dark caves and have
nothing else to focus on but the sound of their breath.
Similarly, the first sound we heard when we were in our
mothers' womb was the sound of her breath, and this
sound has been with us ever since we drew our first
breath. It negates the need to rely on any of the words
of the languages of the world to use as a mantra. It has
brought people to transcendence of worldly limitations
from time immemorial and continues to do so. It can be
done even while driving, working, and doing other acts
of daily life and thereby offers a continuous experience
of being in the present. This is a great present,
because Reality takes place now, in the present. Soham
is a wonder-full meditation technique and I hope will
bring you the experience of Knowledge, Consciousness,
and Bliss that is your birthright.
In the Bible, when God was asked what his name is, He
answered " I Am That I Am'. In Sanskrit, the most
ancient of languages, the sound of the inhalation is
termed So, and the exhalation is Ham. Combined, the word
Soham is translated as "I Am He/That". So, whenever you
are doing this technique, you are calling on God. Every
breath thus becomes a prayer and adoration.
The Soham Meditation Technique
At the time and in the place where you feel most
comfortable, place your body in the position that you
have found to be the most beneficial for meditation.
Close your eyes. Close your ears by putting your thumbs
in them, or by using earplugs. This will intensify the
sound of your breath while diminishing the distractions
that sight and sound bring. Command your mind to be
silent, your emotions to be calm, and your body to stay
relaxed. Focus on the sound of your breath coming in.
Associate it with the word So. As your breath leaves,
listen to the sound and associate it with the word Ham.
To pronounce So and Ham correctly, listen to how they
sound. As with most pranayama (breathing techniques),
Soham is done either in 3 cycles of 12 or 12 cycles of
12. One inhalation and one exhalation are one
respiration. 12 respirations are one cycle. For those
just starting to use this technique, it is usual to
silently say the word So with each inhalation and the
word Ham with each exhale. When you are focused
consistently, consciously, you will flow into simply
listening to the sound of Soham. Soham is by far the
easiest meditation. It comes to all living creatures
without any effort. And yet it is the deepest possible
technique, as it presents the opportunity to meditate on
the great mystery of life and the life-giver itself.
No matter how we have acted and reacted, with each
breath we are forgiven for our so-called sins and
rewarded with another breath, another heartbeat, and
another moment of life to cherish. No act of will on our
part can give us breath. Literally, we are graced with
this gift of life from a power greater than ourselves. A
corpse has every bone, every organ, and every bodily
system that we have, and yet it doesn't have life or
healing energy filling every cell with every breath, as
we have. As you merge more and more with Soham, you
surrender your reactivity to your thoughts, emotions,
and sensory impressions. These are all just heavy
earth-bound suffering-causing limitations. The divine
energy of Soham is limitless heavenly love and light.
Witness, surrender all effort, and fill with this most
precious gift of Grace. And live happily ever after.
VIORICA WEISSMAN from
MillionPaths
D: Is it helpful in the enquiry to sit in
siddhasana,
keeping the spine erect, sitting on deerskin, kushasana,
etc. during the meditation, or are they not quite
necessary? Will they expedite the progress?
Maharshi: The real asana is being established in
the
Self-Reality or the Source. Sit in your Self. Where can
the Self go and sit? Everything sits in the Self. Find
out the source of I and sit there. Do not have the idea
that the Self cannot be realized without the help of
asanas, etc. They are not at all necessary. The chief
thing is to enquire and reach the source of the ego.
These details such as posture, etc., may distract the
mind towards them or to the body.
Q: Should I look for the source within the body?
Maharshi : The ego arises within the body.
Hence, in the
first instance you may look within the body for its
source. When you reach the source there will be no
inside or outside, because the source or the Self is
all-pervading. After realization everything will be
inside the Self.
DAVE MASON from http://www.livejournal.com/users/searby
In his journal and on his website, Dave writes stories
on the theme of awareness and awakening and creates
digital art. --Gloria
Frank paused, and looked out over the rooftops of
Clifton, the direction they had come from, and said:
"Constancy is the most difficult thing. Time and again
you will wake up and realise that you have been coasting
along in a semi-conscious state. Watch out especially
for when you are doing boring repetitious tasks, tedious
journeys, chatting to friends and so on. These times, it
is easy to fall asleep, to drift into
semi-consciousness. And there will be times when the
endless task of constantly watching yourself will be so
wearying that you will want to scream. What will you
do?" "Watch myself scream?" "That's the
spirit.
Remember, this is not like taking vows. If you get drunk
and lose yourself, don't go in for heavy punishment when
you regain awareness. If you wake up from a fortnights
self-pity, don't purge yourself with guilt. Just watch
yourself. Just do it." "You talked about different
Self-Images that the mind creates out of the continually
developing Reference Points, that over time, different
Self-Images would emerge to reflect new experiences and
changing circumstances. So, how will I know that another
Self-Image will not emerge which does the Constancy,
like, a new one watching the old one?" "Brilliant
question. I am glad to see that you are not only awake,
but paying attention. The simple answer is that you
cannot be 100% sure. But! The workings of a Self-Image,
yours, mine, anybodies' will become more and more
obvious as you go further with your Constancy; it's like
a smell, you will be able to smell the workings of a
Self-Image. And here is one of the dangers, it has been
called "the old man comes in through the back door".
The
idea of this is simple: you throw the old man out of the
front door, and unbeknown to yourself he hobbles round
the side and returns through the back door. For example,
you might be a compulsive smoker, but you summon the
motivation to give up. Perhaps you had a health scare.
Anyway, you succeed. You give up smoking, but become a
compulsive eater instead. The compulsion has changed,
but the driving force is unaffected. The old man has
come in through the back door, your problem re-presents
itself. The success you felt was illusory. This can
happen a lot. But here lies the strength of Constancy,
done well, done with true heart, it will render your
Self-Image transparent, yours and everybody elses'. You
do not want to get rid of your Self-Image, it is much
too useful, you just want to isolate the censorship that
it enforces. Certainty is a picture fabricated by the
Self-Image, you can never be certain again, not in the
old way, anyhow. But you will experience something much
better. The truth of your own feelings." Sam found
himself getting more and more agitated as Frank was
speaking, and now blurted out: "But what you're saying
is that the base line for knowing things is just my own
feelings, and if that is true for me then it must be
true for others, this means we are like bumper cars that
just meander around with nothing real between us...."
"That may or may not be the case, but you don't know
that yet, you must experience that directly first in
order to know...." "Right or wrong, come on, are you
saying that the only thing that is real, is what feels
right to me?" "Feelings are real! Thoughts, no matter
how brilliant they are, are just calculations, it is
what we feel about our thoughts that really matters.
With Constancy you are trying to let go of that part of
you which is fixing on one reality at the expense of all
the others. You have to trust that your Self-Image is
going to carry on like an automatic pilot whilst you
deliberately undermine it, that this huge mystery that
you find yourself in, your life, can be explored, but
not through any port in the storm, not through some
clever mental somersaults, no, through your
feelings....." Frank tapped Sam on the chest with his
index finger, ".....your feelings!" "Does this
mean that
if I am lying in bed with a fever and hallucinating that
the police are coming to kill me that for all intents
and purposes it is true and not paranoia?" "Can you see
what you have just done? You have created a hypothetical
example of what reality is and then gone on to create
the groundwork for distinguishing between two or more
"states" of reality. So now you have three states: the
"real" world of not being in a fever, the
"unreal" world
of feverish hallucinations, and a third state that
arbitrates between the other two! But all three of those
are just creations of your Self-Image, creations of your
mind! You can only be where you find yourself. Constancy
will help you see through the quagmire of mental
creations. What you experience is real! But to answer
the drift of your question, at the end of the day what
is real is what you feel, not what you think. Thinking
is endless and removed. Feelings are always now. With
Constancy you will not need to choose between different
states that might, or might not be real. That....is what
Constancy offers."
http://pages.britishlibrary.net/clear1/hub.htm
(link may no longer be working)
At the end of this page there are links for two
galleries called Mandala and Imagings.
MAZIE LANE from Nonduality Salon
What We Want, What We Really, ReallyWant
Things like pomegranates, orangey-flash flared, that
crepe-de-chine, frilled-out friend that blossoms
everyday for Rumi. Blossoms out in our world's Everyday.
We mystic lovers often talk about the pearled, nacred
Luminata Light regatta. Coming through the tips of the
pine trees, the ancients seem to be a giant kelp bed,
and the earth is the seabed, and the moon is a floating
pearl that's looking for the Beloved in the face of
every gathered lover. And I am a California sea otter
cracking the sky-abalone's rippled shell between my
Soul-Teeth. My mind has not ripple in this God-Tide.
Long into the night the sufi's spin, not just around the
Sheik, but they spin the web of laughter into every glad
heart. They make it ever gladder. A hand dipping in the
heart for poems, a foot, a Love-Midas golden toetip
turning the universe into the Elsewhere, into the
Splendor of the Dawn, into the Full-Fledged Majesty!
We get a hand out from the Hand of the Friend. He's very
handy and very helpful.
We get a foot up on the friendship with the Friend, He's
very footloose and free with teaching perfect dance
steps.
We get a Heartfelt how do you do, for doing nothing.
Especially for Being, just BEING, something about an
Abundance, an Abundance of All That Nothing.
Sounds like there's something to it to me.
We sufi's like to gather late at night, we like to
gather up the hearts of one another. We like to run
around and bang on doors to Nowhere, and climb ladders
to roofs that aren't there, and drink the SweetWine
poured from Tcha! Oh Pshaw! That last line was just for
fun!
We Yogi's like to lie in our own ashes, and light the
seven lanterns in the spine. We like to come on to Hari
Krishna, Hari, Hari, Hari Rama! Rama-lama-ding-dong! We
like to walk along the Ganges in our minds, and steal
the skulls off Mother Kali. And then drink our own blood
in them! We slip along the sushumna like a serpent.
We Buddhist's like to clear away our thoughts. We like
to whack the back of one another, with a bamboo forest
growing in our minds. We chant and banter 'bout the
Dalai Lama, about the time when Buddha bounced our
Dharma check. We like to carry redwood trees and haul
tidepools. We simply slay the very notion of any other,
Other. Is there any other way to do this dying?
We mad Advaitists like to act as if, we act a lot like
we aren't even saying anything. We try to never be
appearing to have a name or home. We even say we do not
have a dog, or particularly like anything in particular.
You know, we really have no preferences for one thing or
another. We just want to insist to everyone, to everyone
who'll listen that is, that we aren't even here, while
spouting out so loudly, "I AM, I AM, I AM, I really,
really Am!" And right NOW, too!
This idea of mine to say a thing to something, it's just
a ploy, an act, a front. What I really want to do, what
I really want to say, is that God isn't interested in
our rituals.
He simply does not give a fuck what we do to get to Know
Him.
So let's just shimmy up to God, let's just jimmy open
His Heart. Let's just get down and do this LOVE thing.
Nothing else to do,
SO, let's all just stick to Rumi's "new rule," and
break
the Wineglass, and fall
i n t o
The Glassblower's Breath.
Oh You Huuuuu, over here!
Love, Mazie
MILES WRIGHT from
Ramana-Maharshi
'The waters arise up from the sea like clouds, then fall
as rain and run back to the sea in streams; nothing can
keep them from returning to their source. Likewise the
soul rising up from Thee cannot be kept from joining
Thee again, although it turns in many eddies on its
way.' (from Sri Arunachala Ashtakam; trans. 'Faith')
Fair in every part, my true love, no fault in all thy
fashioning. Venture forth from Lebanon, and come to me
my bride, my queen that shall be. Leave Amana behind
thee, Sanir and Hermon heights, where the liars of lions
are, where the leopards roam the hills. What a wound
thou has made, my bride, my true love, what a wound thou
hast made in this heart of mine.
Song of Solomon 4: 7-9
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