Generating Space – Like David, I have been practising these exercises while gazing out into the trees in my garden. At a distance borders can seem strong. Yet as I approach I can see, or sometimes simply sense, the permeability or lack of definition within such boundaries. Concepts of ‘inside/outside’ are really incredibly subjective. I see ‘inside the house’ and ‘outside the house’, yet, if I am on the verandah, do I consider myself to be inside or outside? The verandah posts appear solid to me, yet I know that they are in fact quite porous. I realize that these terms are all simply labels that, through consensus, we choose to attach to perceived objects. As I open to an alternative perspective on these apparently solid objects, they seem to ‘float’ in space.Â
In our yoga class this week, I was practising the Kum Nye exercise Flying. As I moved through space, space seemed all-encompassing. There was movement, at times there were sensations of discomfort as the movement slowed and slowed, but there was no apparent ego-self, scarcely an observer, only light open freedom.
As I attend to Space in my meditation practices, finite objects seem delicately suspended within space, their fragility and permeability become so apparent. Space seems to ‘present’ – I ‘see’ objects as spacious, I ‘hear’ sounds emerging from a deep silence, touch seems light, smells arrive on unscented air – we note them only because they contrast to the normal unscented state. Taste emerges out of ‘nothing’ and gradually subsides into ‘nothing’. I wonder – Form appears from what? Sound emerges from what? Taste arises from what? Touch is sensed in contrast to what? Scent floats on what? Thoughts seem to arise through energy from stillness. At times when I practise, I can see them emerge from the wings, grab centre stage, then exit the stage again, leaving traces in memory, but the thoughts themselves being essentially ephemeral. Like ripples on a lake, these impressions seem to be increased when my feelings or emotions come into play or when images are visualized by the mind. My thoughts organize and construct but they rarely seem to provide any enlightenment. Just ‘being’, without thought, is what seems to provide some kind of en-lightened feeling within me. This seems to occur, as the practice commentary states, when I am “open to silenceâ€.
Sometimes I can ‘see’ openly, accepting everything I view in an open all-encompassing way. Sometimes I ’hear’ openly, e.g. in the yoga practice Nispandha bhava (“Listening to soundâ€) where all sound is accepted as equally fulsome, equally miraculous, I can open my taste buds to different cuisines, open to new flavours, or taste medicine without ‘reacting’ to the bitter taste. Sometimes I observe myself ‘opening’ to unusual perfumes, becoming thus more sensitive to all scents around me. I can even ‘open’ to sensations of pain at times if I don’t label these as pain, but simply observe (sometimes I try this out when sitting at the dentist, with varying success). At times I can do the same with thought content – letting go of the tightness of content which releases a more open, playful approach.
Space arising – sitting in stillness, I seem to be in a bed of feeling from which everything else can arise. It’s a state in which I feel I could remain forever – complete contentment, ‘rightness’. Thoughts, when they arise, seem to flit by as though they were on a screen. I can participate in such thought processes if I choose, yet still feel not part of them, as though residing at a depth at the same time. The phrase used in the practice - ‘womb of space’ –  is a good description of this feeling, although it seems to me more like “a womb of space and time†– an essence from which momentum also springs. In contrast, I can see mind and mental activity - a clever tool provided it is only that, but how rarely does my mind act in that way! But I love it when it does happen, if ever so briefly.
Gaynor
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