Transcription
We'll do a guided meditation in a minute. Just to say something, which I may have said somewhere or other before. This is partly in response, because a couple people have mentioned: you know, like all practices, imaginal practice, or practising with images, you could say we get 'better' at it, if 'better' is the right word. We develop a facility with it. Images and working with images becomes more available to us with time. It's a practice. It develops. Our ability to move into that realm and to sustain it, and our skill with the nuances, it all becomes more available.
We've been mentioning how the different practices feed each other. You see how dwelling with an emotion can give birth to an image, or the softening or the harmonizing of samādhi gives birth to an image or whatever. Some of you here are familiar with emptiness practices. We're not really talking much about that on this retreat, but that also softens and loosens things. Often, one's working with an emptiness practice, and that can open and loosen things enough for an image to be born. So there are all kinds of ways in. If you know the emptiness practices, feel free to incorporate them in your range of what you're playing with here that support and nourish the whole process.
It's also probably true that some people just tend to have more images than other people. But I don't think this matters that much at all. I think what matters is the interest, the interest and the attraction to doing this kind of work. So I was not at all a person who had a lot of images, at all. That really wasn't alive in my life, and certainly not in my practice. Years of a certain kind of practising a little bit erodes that whole dimension of our being, because in mindfulness, etc., we tend to just dismiss, let go. Then there's the cultural denigration of the imagination. So I wasn't, but at some point I just got really interested in this, and then slowly, slowly, the vitality and the diversity of that world began to open up. Slowly, slowly, with practice. I think what galvanizes that and opens that as much as anything is just our interest. So just the fact that we're interested in that, rather than, "Oh, maybe this isn't for me," or "I don't seem to be getting very much," the interest will open things.
What I would like to do now is a guided meditation involving body and breath, and we could say breath energy, energy body, air element -- we breathe the air element. But approach it from the feeling and the perspective of the energy body and the imagination of the breath, the image, the imaginal breath, the imaginal body, etc.
[3:31, guided meditation begins]
So let's establish yourself in your posture of meditation, something that's open, comfortable, stable. Feeling the sense of the whole posture, feeling the body. Feeling the posture itself as alive, as poise. The posture of meditation has soul too.
As always, letting the awareness permeate the body. Opening up the awareness, stretching it to cover that space, and filling it with awareness. Sensitive to that field of energy, of texture, of vibration.
Bright, sensitive awareness. Alive. The body is alive, the energy is alive, the awareness, the attention, the presence, is alive. The aliveness of presence. Just noticing how that feels, how that space feels. The quality, qualities, of the vibrations or movements. This sensitivity to this more open field, this sphere, this area of what we could call energy, this will be the basis, as always, of what we do in this meditation period. It may be all that you do. Maybe you just stay with that, and you don't go so much into what I'm guiding. But that remains the basis.
I'm going to work through three possibilities. Some of you may relate to just one of them, or this one or that one, or two of them, or all of them, or none of them. They're just possibilities. But they all involve the energy body, and if you just stay with that and don't even explore the possibilities, that's fine too.
The awareness will keep shrinking many times; no problem, just notice and expand it again. Stretch it out again, fill that space with the aliveness and the presence of awareness. Feeling into the space, stretching, opening.
Can you imagine right now the breath, the breath energy, the image of the breath -- whether that's a visual; primarily we want a kinaesthetic sense with the energy body. Can you imagine it entering the body, the energy body, the imaginal body, entering it a little below the navel? Just a few finger widths below the navel. That actually the energy is entering into the body at that point. And then maybe from that point, it radiates through the whole space to fill the space, or maybe it radiates in certain currents, certain tracks or rivers through the space, through the body. How does it feel for the breath to come in in the lower centre there? In and out. Sensitive to the whole space. The breath coming in and out at that point. What kind of breath feels good, feels comfortable, feels even pleasant, or just feels 'right,' right now, when the breath is felt, imagined, the breath energy is felt or imagined, coming in and out of that point? Is it a long breath? A very long breath? Or a short breath, or a very short breath? What feels right? How does it ripple through the space of the energy body? Is it a coarse breath, or is it a more subtle breath that wants to be breathed there, that feels right, feels good?
If you want, you could stay with the breath coming in and out there. Or, if you like, you could then see: what does it feel like to breathe through your perineum? Through the bottom of the body. Or maybe in through a larger area, through the whole lower part of your body -- through the soles of your feet, or the legs that are making contact with the earth, with the floor. Breathing the breath energy, the image of the breath, in and out through the bottom of the body. Again, sensitive to the whole space. Noticing how this feels. Again, what kind of breath feels good, feels right? Let the whole body, the whole space be involved. The whole body is being breathed.
[12:25] Again, you're welcome to stay at that point. In a way, I'm moving quite fast between different points. You don't have to move. You can stay there if you prefer, stay with the original one. But if you want, how does it feel to breathe in into the back, into the lower back? The breath energy felt, imagined, in and out of the lower back. What kind of breath? What feels good? How is the whole body affected by the breath as it comes in and out at that point, or the breath energy? Spreading the awareness through the whole space. Sensitive, alive, delicate attention.
Again, if it's not too fast -- you're welcome to stay with any of these points and not move on, but if you'd like to, how does it feel to breathe in and out through the back of the heart centre in the upper back? Perhaps the whole back is open to the breath coming in and out there, the breath energy. How does it ripple? How does it move in the space of the body when it comes in, when it goes out? How does the energy radiate or fill?
Again, staying with one point if you like, if it feels good, if it feels helpful, or if you want, how does it feel to breathe in and out through the crown of the head? Or perhaps even higher than the head, in the bigger space of the energy body? In and out. The whole body, the whole space is involved, affected. The whole space, the whole body, is breathing. How does it feel?
Again, you can stay with any of these points if you want. You don't have to move on. But if you want, if it feels okay, coming down to the front of the body, somewhere in the centre of the chest or a little lower in the solar plexus -- the heart centre or the solar plexus, somewhere around there. Letting the breath, imagining the breath, feeling the breath energy, the imaginal breath, come in and out of the front of the body, move through, fill the whole of the body. Feeling that, alive to that. Opening the body, opening the space of the body, opening the energy body to the breath. Letting the breath energy open the body. Sometimes it can be a very subtle breath that opens the body, or it might be a longer, coarser breath. What feels right, here, now? Opening.
If you like, you can be aware of, you can imagine, feel, the breath entering the body from all sides -- the breath, the energy, the breath energy is all around the body. The whole surface of the energy body is porous, breathing in and out, from every point on the surface, even if the surface is not exactly clear. The whole space breathing, pulsating. Open, opening. How does it feel?
[21:28] Or perhaps the breath actually grows from within, from a point within the body, within the space. Rather than breathing in, the breath expands from within, from that point, expands out in a sphere and fills the whole space with its energy. Then it collapses again, back to that one point. Where is that point? Could be anywhere. What feels right? The whole body is involved. The whole body feeling the energy of the breath. The physical breath might be very, very still. The breath energy might be very, very still. Just what feels good right now?
Let yourself go with whichever of those points, entry points, or points of origin that you'd like to right now. Any of them. Is it possible, either with a visual sense or just a felt sense, that the breath is felt as light? Light, light energy. This light is breathing you, it's breathing me. The light is breathing me. The light is breathing my body. Maybe there's a sense of a colour that this light wants to be or feels good. Could be any colour. Maybe it's visual, maybe it's just a felt sense of the quality of the light. Maybe it has tenderness in it, or brilliance, or love. The light is breathing you. The light is breathing me, breathing my body. The breath is the light.
Maybe spontaneously it's a certain colour -- could be any colour -- or maybe deliberately you just choose a colour and see how that feels. Can you feel or sense or notice how that light, that colour, feels right now? Again, what kind of breath feels best, and where? Don't get overwhelmed with choices, but just let yourself be flexible. What you notice may be subtle, may be hard to put into words -- it doesn't matter. Maybe different colours of light nourish us in different ways, have different effects, maybe. What's the effect of green? Maybe there's a kind of joy, a certain kind of joy in green that may be different from the certain kind of joy in red. Of course, there are different shades of red or green -- or blue of the afternoon sky, the blue of twilight, aquamarine blue.
Maybe your body, your being, as much as being breathed by this light, having this light enter, is also emanating, radiating this light. This light pours forth from the body, from the energy body, from your being. Maybe it heals. It's a healing light, or a blessing light. Maybe this light that radiates from the body is part of what transforms the world, the cosmos around you, the perception of the world, the cosmos around you in blessing. The light coming from you, creating a sacred maṇḍala around you. The world become maṇḍala, sacred space, Buddha-realm, heaven. How does that feel? What effect does this have on the heart, on the energy body, on the sense of self, of things? It could be somehow both that the light is breathing you and you are emanating this light, radiating this light. Being breathed and radiating breath, breath energy, light, blessing, healing, transubstantiating.
[33:33] You can stay with any aspect or part of what we've moved through so far if you want, and just keep it at that. If you'd like to, you can also, within the awareness of the energy body, with the awareness of the energy body, perhaps also with the sense of light being breathed, radiating, blessing, transubstantiating, you might also, if you would like to, bring up an imaginal figure, invoke, call on an imaginal figure perhaps that you love or that you feel loves you. Perhaps some form of a beloved, whatever that might mean to you. That can be any kind of love. Love comes with a lot of different flavours. There are many kinds of love. It might be erotic. That's okay; it's just a form. It's a kind of love. Actually, there are many kinds of erotic. Anything that feels okay for you right now, with this awareness of energy body, coming into relationship with this imaginal figure. It may be visual, or may be just a sense of them.
What would it be to breathe together in harmony with this imaginal being? Perhaps you're breathing in and out together, breaths in sympathy and harmony, in synchronization, connected through the breath. Opening the body, opening the energy body, to the breath and to the imaginal figure, to the love, through the breath. Maybe it feels better to pass the breath back and forth so that your out-breath is taken in as an in-breath by the imaginal figure, and their out-breath you receive, you take in, with the whole of your body, the whole of your being. Where are they? Are they in front of you? Are they behind you? Are they all around you? Are they somehow inside you? Opening, through the energy body, through the breath energy. Opening yourselves to this figure. Perhaps your bodies are touching. Perhaps there's a great distance or some distance between you, but connected through the breath. Breathing with them or being breathed by them.
Opening, feeling. Again, what kind of breath? What does the breath feel like? Is it very soft, gentle? Is there tenderness in it, or is it more forceful? The whole body is involved. Just as much as it feels okay for you, allowing the connection, allowing the vitality. Allowing the opening and the penetrating. If it is erotic, or even sexual if it feels that way and it feels okay, allowing that. Maybe there's a merging. Nothing has to happen. Sensitive to the energy body, to the emotions, to the soul-resonances. Just noticing how the body feels right now, the self-sense, perhaps also the wider sense of others, of the world around. Noticing any effects on perception when we play with images -- perception of self, of body, of others, of world. Noticing if and how the image spills over into a cosmopoesis of some kind.
[43:50, guided meditation ends]
Okay. So it's twelve minutes to four. There's an open group with Catherine in the lounge at four, and then optional Q & A at five in the lounge. Okay? Anything else? It's a nice day. [laughter] So whatever form of practice, whatever mode, posture, place, please enjoy.
