{"id":407,"date":"2007-06-04T04:39:09","date_gmt":"2007-06-04T11:39:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/cciforum.dreamhosters.com\/2007\/06\/04\/unit-16-%e2%80%93-dts-910-generating-spacespace-arising\/"},"modified":"2012-12-08T11:37:15","modified_gmt":"2012-12-08T19:37:15","slug":"unit-16-dts-910-generating-spacespace-arising","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cciforum.dreamhosters.com\/?p=407","title":{"rendered":"UNIT 16 \u00e2\u20ac\u201c DTS 9\/10 Generating Space\/Space arising"},"content":{"rendered":"

Generating Space<\/strong> – 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 \u00e2\u20ac\u02dcinside\/outside\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 are really incredibly subjective. I see \u00e2\u20ac\u02dcinside the house\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 and \u00e2\u20ac\u02dcoutside the house\u00e2\u20ac\u2122, 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 \u00e2\u20ac\u02dcfloat\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 in space.\u00c2\u00a0<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

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 \u00e2\u20ac\u02dcpresent\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 \u00e2\u20ac\u201c I \u00e2\u20ac\u02dcsee\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 objects as spacious, I \u00e2\u20ac\u02dchear\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 sounds emerging from a deep silence, touch seems light, smells arrive on unscented air \u00e2\u20ac\u201c we note them only because they contrast to the normal unscented state. Taste emerges out of \u00e2\u20ac\u02dcnothing\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 and gradually subsides into \u00e2\u20ac\u02dcnothing\u00e2\u20ac\u2122. 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\u00c2\u00a0being 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 \u00e2\u20ac\u02dcbeing\u00e2\u20ac\u2122, without thought, is what seems to provide some kind of en-lightened<\/em> feeling within me. This seems to occur, as the practice commentary states, when I am \u00e2\u20ac\u0153open to silence\u00e2\u20ac\u009d.<\/p>\n

Sometimes I can \u00e2\u20ac\u02dcsee\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 openly, accepting everything I view in an open all-encompassing way. Sometimes I \u00e2\u20ac\u2122hear\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 openly, e.g. in the yoga practice Nispandha bhava (\u00e2\u20ac\u0153Listening to sound\u00e2\u20ac\u009d) 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 \u00e2\u20ac\u02dcreacting\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 to the bitter taste. Sometimes I observe myself \u00e2\u20ac\u02dcopening\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 to unusual perfumes, becoming thus more sensitive to all scents around me. I can even \u00e2\u20ac\u02dcopen\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 to sensations of pain at times if I don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t 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 \u00e2\u20ac\u201c letting go of the tightness of content which releases a more open, playful approach.<\/p>\n

Space arising<\/strong> \u00e2\u20ac\u201c sitting in stillness, I seem to be in a bed of feeling from which everything else can arise. It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s a state in which I feel I could remain forever \u00e2\u20ac\u201c complete contentment, \u00e2\u20ac\u02dcrightness\u00e2\u20ac\u2122. 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 -\u00c2\u00a0\u00e2\u20ac\u02dcwomb of space\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 – \u00c2\u00a0is a good description of this feeling, although it seems to me more like \u00e2\u20ac\u0153a womb of space and time\u00e2\u20ac\u009d \u00e2\u20ac\u201c an essence from which momentum also springs. In contrast, I can see mind and mental activity -\u00c2\u00a0a 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.<\/p>\n

Gaynor<\/p>\n

\u00c2\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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 … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1,11],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-407","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-01_general","category-tsk-online-program"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cciforum.dreamhosters.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/407","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/cciforum.dreamhosters.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/cciforum.dreamhosters.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cciforum.dreamhosters.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/8"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cciforum.dreamhosters.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=407"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/cciforum.dreamhosters.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/407\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cciforum.dreamhosters.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=407"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cciforum.dreamhosters.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=407"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cciforum.dreamhosters.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=407"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}