As I have only just gained access to the website, I would like to add a couple of comments re Unit 1 practices, even though I note that Jack has just launched us into Unit 2.
 I also have tried Expanding and Condensing several times over the last week. I agree with Jack that the dynamics of expanding and condensing are not always what you expect. I am just recovering from an operation, and decided to experiment with expanding the pain that I was still feeling. I expected expansion to make the pain greater but instead it seemed to spread, diffuse it, making it more bearable when it didn’t seem to relate so strongly to the little entity I considered as my “self”. In contrast, by condensing the pain, its intensity increased as it became more localised. The Expanding Awareness Kum Nye practice came to mind, where the kind of expansion explored leads to a glorious release and a feeling of blending with the universe as a whole – somehow the universe seemed to have taken on part of my felt pain. In contrast, if I try to practise condensing my sense of “self”, there is certainly a feeling of intensification, but also a refinement of this sense – as though a refined essence of my “self” can yet be maintained, even on the head of a pin.
As part of our Turiya group student syllabus this year we have also been working with the other practice recommended for this week – Marriage of Sound and Breath. This has become one of my very favourite TSK practices. In practising it, we seem to be assuming open awareness by focusing at the same time on the external world (sound), the pranic world (breath) and one of the chakra centres (throat). If we can do this at the same time, then we really can have a widely encompassing awareness. I have worked on this practice over and over again, but almost every time I notice that when I thnk that I have brought the three “attendings” together, I find that I am actually switching attention very quickly, in almost the blink of an eye, from one to another. One simply doesn’t usually have all three within the awareness simultaneoulsy. Only once did I feel that I had actually ‘captured’ the intent of the practice, and when this happened, the experience was totally unique. The all encompassing unity of breath-throat-sound seemed like being enclosed in a bubble, almost like I felt once when scuba diving, where the experience seems to constitute a universe within itself – a strange concept, but that’s the best way that I can describe it. Has anyone else had a similar experience with this or other practices?
GaynorÂ
There is a critical shortage of informative artceils like this.
Bruce and Jack,
Thanks for your comments.
Your “double” practice Bruce sounds interesting – I may try it some time.
Re the “refined essence of self” you commented on Jack, within Turiya we talk about the “small s” self i.e. the ego, and the “large s” Self i.e. the ahamkara or individual consciousness. I know that this is quite different from the Buddhist perspective, and it was the one point that I remember Maaida having issue with in the Buddhist teaching. She was quite adamant that “the dewdrop flows into the sea, but remains forever a dewdrop” (her words). I’m not sure that I have the understanding to choose between the alternative views, but it will be interesting to do further exploration on the issue.
Gaynor
Hi Gaynor,
I’m interested in your sense of a “refined essence of yourself” that remains in the condensing practice. Given your background in Turiya yoga, I’m guessing that’s a good thing; from a Buddhist perspective one might see it differently. We’ll have a chance to go into all that later in the program.
In any event, I’m glad you’re here and participating.
Jack
Gaynor,
I also really appreciate the “Marriage of Sound and Breath” exercise. I used to work with it regularly, and was happy to take it up again in this study program. Usually, I practice it with a “nature sounds” CD, such as a flowing stream or ocean waves, which gives me a constant but also subtly changing sound to work with.
I’ve had a similar experience to yours: often I find myself quickly alternating between sound, breath, and the throat chakra, but then sometimes there is a felt shift and they seem to be present all at once. I like your description of a “bubble,” because it relates to what I’ve also found — a kind of concentrated “space” where all three are inseparable, and notably, all appearing “on the spot.” By this, I mean that the activity itself shows up more as a circulating or “flashing” in place, without the “normal” sense of spatial or temporal extension.
Recently, in conjunction with Unit One, I tried to merge Expanding and Condensing with the Marriage of Sound and Breath exercise. I only did this in one session, but found it enjoyable and helpful. First, I took the sound of the stream as an object to expand and condense: allowing the sound to grow and encompass the room, the neighborhood, the city, and further and further outwards until I felt the river was flowing “through” the entire universe, at all levels; and then drawing the sound back in until it became concentrated in a small sphere. I merged this sphere with my throat area and then just continued with the Marriage of Sound and Breath exercise. These practices in conjunction seemed especially powerful to me, and this was one of the occasions when I felt the shift into that sense of union among the different elements. The feeling is both calm and energized.
Best wishes,
Bruce