Finding
Adi Da > Chris Tong > Part IV (Waking Up) > B (Moving Beyond) > Chapter 3
3. Breathe Me and Feel Me in all Your Parts:
Filling the Cup
Therefore, Even the body-mind and the Whole world Will Be Shining With My Life-Light, If I Am Loved. And My Devotee Will Easily Be Sifted Out From the body-mind and all the limits of the world itself At Last.
Only Love Me, Remember Me, Have Faith in Me, and Trust Me. Surrender To Me. Breathe Me and Feel Me In all Your parts. My "Bright" Condition Can Also Be Realized By You.
Whoever Is Given (By Heart) to Me Will Be Washed, From head to toe, by All The True Water Of My Transcendental Spiritual Love-Bliss-Light, That Always Crashes Down on all-and-All, Below My Blessing-Feet.
There is a Core, A Well, A Refreshment Where you live, Where you arise — a Refreshed, Cool Water, a Sweetness That cannot be denied and That makes you sane. When It Radiates throughout the total body-mind, you do not play at being disturbed anymore.
To be the cup you must be surrendered to begin with. There’s just this Filling. But it is about this Filling, and not merely about being in the cup position. It’s Filling by heart-Communion with Me, ego-forgetting Communion with Me. Live the Yoga, and that’s the proof of it — the capability to become full of this nectar, My Tangible Touching Presence, Love-Bliss. You must become Filled to the crown.
For those devotees who have never considered applying the Devotional Prayer of Changes to growth in their practice of the Way of Adidam, even wondering if that wasn't an appropriate use of the Prayer (and feels like "cheating") — to the contrary, it is the core use of the Prayer (along with the Adidam Mission)! Here's what Adi Da says about it:
In the Prayer of Changes you purge yourself of false views, negative views, presumptions, and feelings, and intentionally, through whole-bodily submission, enter into a higher presumption, a perfect presumption, the presumption of change from what appears. That new presumption influences the universal field of mind that is controlling phenomena. . .
This is another reason why it is so important for the community of devotees to grow in size and for the individuals within it to cooperate intentionally with one another relative to changes of all kinds, including the will to Enlightenment for all. That is fundamentally what the Prayer of Changes is about, but it does not mean that lesser positive changes that are secondary to the ultimate matter of Enlightenment are disregarded or considered negative.
The Devotional Prayer of Changes is a Prayer for Manifestation. So it's natural to apply such a Prayer for making something that's already true (but not yet experientially obvious) become something that is manifested in the experience of the devotee:
I do not operate by Giving My devotee a “method” to Realize Oneness with Real God. It is a hopeless task. It is not My devotee who, through effort, Realizes Non-separateness from God. Rather, it is I Who Live My devotee As Non-separate from Real God, from My Own Divine Self-Nature, Self-Condition, and Self-State. And My Living of My devotee becomes Spontaneous “Knowledge” of Me in My devotee. I first Transform My devotee. Then My devotee begins to realize what has happened. That very process must be enabled wherein the Divine can Enact Oneness with the devotee. And then the devotee, depending on the degree of his or her intelligence, sooner or later realizes that That Is the Case. And that is how the Principle of devotion works. That is what makes it different from the principle of the search.
The function of the Adept is not to call people back to Realize God but to grant people the Realization of God instantly. Having established you in such Realization, the Adept calls you to practice the Way of that Realization, the Way of constantly abiding in that Realization. Such abiding requires the discipline of self-transcending submission to Divine Communion.
Engaging the Devotional Prayer Of Changes for growth in my practice was when my practice really began to take off.
Release of limiting beliefs. Piano sonata playing example.
It's a conscious process. Any moment that we are not consciously turning to the Divine, we are unconsciously turning away from the Divine and reinforcing egoic patterns.
A man went to his Master and said, "Master, I feel like there are two dogs fighting inside me, a good dog and a bad dog. Which one is going to win?" The Master said, "The one that you feed the most."
If you are My true devotee, you (necessarily) turn to Me in every moment — such that you cannot meditate on yourself. In any moment when you are not turning to Me, you are (inevitably) meditating on yourself.
Devotion to Me is Inherently Love-Bliss-Full. It must be done in every moment — otherwise you remember yourself, instead of Me. To remember yourself is not Bliss. To remember yourself is stress and struggle. To always Remember to merely turn to Me — and, as an inevitable consequence, to forget yourself — is to live in my Love-Bliss-Fullness.
We have no precedent whatsoever for a conscious "moment-to-moment practice"! Human beings do not engage anything consciously for hours at a time, let alone all the time. More than that: we simply are rarely "conscious" for hours at a time. Huge portions of our time every day — can find us on "auto-pilot", or in some kind of (semi-conscious) reverie state. So a moment-to-moment practice is a huge step up in degree of consciousness throughout each day.
A niyama I have found useful: slow down with everything, just a little bit. Engaging this discipline brings more consciousness to all periods of time that are normally in “autopilot” mode very naturally, without affecting your ability to function (since you are only slowing down a little bit).
Fanning the fire vs. letting the fire go out and starting it again from scratch.
The day that unfolds after you have gone to the Communion Hall in the early morning is not a vacation until nightfall when you go to the Communion Hall again. No. All the hours between the times when you go to the Communion Hall are the times of this same Yoga. You must do it persistently and artfully. Do not allow yourself the vacation of wandering into the content of the conditioned body-mind. The only thing it is going to show you is its conditioning, based on your egoic "self-possession" and denial of God. Your business is this Yoga, in the midst of your practice of it noticing this and that in order to apply a discipline of right life that is in conformity with Me, and in greater conformity with Me always.
In His Omnipresence, Adi Da is always already perfectly coinciding with us; when we give Him the gift of greater practice sometimes that gift is returned in the form of Him initiating the fire. It's a relationship not a technique. "Only real gifts create right relationship to Me." Nine Great Laws
Virtuous circle or positive feedback loop.
Foreground activity vs. background subjectivity
Moment to moment practice is self-reinforcing. When you are in the core, the subjectivity in general rises above the level of detectability: both the positive of Divine Happiness, and the negative of self-contraction. That subjectivity, whether positive or negative, serves as a constant reminder throughout the day to practice. Whereas normally, as a seeker, we’ve converged on a subjectivity that is largely below threshold most of the time — an immunized state, as Adi Da describes it.
One reason why moment-to-moment practice is self-reinforcing is that Divine Happiness, in the context of the relationship with Adi Da. You look up in so many moments of the day, to feel Him kissing you somewhere with His Happiness. If you don't dissociate the Happiness from the Person Who Is the Source of that Happiness, you are instantly moved to respond to Him and return the gift, and not waste it, so grateful for His steady Presence, and never taking It for granted.
It is possible to be doing a form of moment-to-moment practice where Adi Da's Spirit Blessing is "in the background". You can feel Him there, but there isn't much feeling-intensity to the feeling. Actually feeling the Spirit Blessing as Divine Happiness (and how intensely you feel It as Divine Happiness) depends on how much feeling-awareness you invest in Him, how profoundly you are turning to Him. Obviously you will be able to grant maximal feeling-attention when you are in meditation, and have nothing else competing for your attention. But the more feeling-awereness you can give to Him even while doing other things throughout the day (and the more you can adapt to a higher, ongoing level of feeling-awareness of Him), the more you will be filling the cup, and the Happier you will be.
Sleep and practice
Pilot lights represented a major advance in water heater and furnace design. Before pilot lights were invented, a heater needed to be manually lit, every time you wanted to use it. A pilot light is a permanently burning little flame, that obviates the need for manual lighting. Simply turn on the furnace, and the pilot light will automatically ignite the main burner.
So what do pilot lights have to do with practice of the Way of Adidam? After several months of practice that was increasingly closer to "moment-to-moment", accompanied by intensive use of the Devotional Prayer of Changes to reveal how my practice could be intensified, I woke up one morning with what I have ended up calling a "two pilot light" practice! I felt Adi Da's Divine State of Happiness burning steadily like a pilot light at the top of my head; and I felt a similar "pilot light" in the right side of my heart. It feels natural to call them "pilot lights" because they are just there — He is just there — glowing, all the time. And they bypass the usual "Communion Hall practice", where significant time can often be required to feel Adi Da's Divine State — which is like what was required to light the furnace manually before having a furnace with a pilot light. With this "pilot light" practice, no time is required! I feel Adi Da as always present. Even when I would wake up at night, those two pilot lights still would be glowing. Occasionally, I may need a few seconds (and very occasionally, a few minutes) to "clear off" the pilot lights, because they've been temporarily covered over by "images of separate self" — the self-contraction. But the clearing off process is easy and routine.
Every aspect of the Reality-Way of Adidam is a Magnification of right and true whole-bodily-recognition-responsive devotional Communion with Me As I Am (or As My Divinely Avatarically Revealed Person and State).
Adi Da has given us a very useful operational definition — that is, a definition of the "I'll know it when I see it" kind — for recognition of Him: "Anybody who is recognizing Me is absorbed into My State. It is a profound Transcendental Spiritual condition. That's how I tell." In this "two pilot light" practice, my head and my heart could now readily be absorbed in Adi Da's State. For it to be "whole-bodily-recognition-responsive devotional Communion with" Him, I needed to allow my vital to be absorbed in Him as well.
ADI DA: It’s not enough to know something about “Samraj Asana” in Yogic terms as I have Given it to you. You have to do it for real, responsively — and then you have to do it profoundly, consistently. Over time, for real, altogether, such that the cup gets full.
It’s not enough for it just to be a cup — it must be Filled. Realizing all that’s Realized in the in-Filling and Pervading, including being beyond this cup. Realizing that by demonstration is the real Process. It’s not a technique. It is a relationship. This relationship is the Way of Adidam.
So what is it — not only in terms of the practice — what is it as a demonstrated Process and Realization?
WILLIAM: Most fundamentally, it is Samadhi, the Samadhi of heart-Communion with You, bodily.
ADI DA: Mm-hm. By surrendering whole-bodily, psycho-physically. But it’s not a matter of being a cup that’s getting Filled. To be the cup you must be surrendered to begin with. There’s just this Filling. But it is about this Filling, and not merely about being in the cup position. It’s Filling by heart-Communion with Me, ego-forgetting Communion with Me. Live the Yoga, and that’s the proof of it — the capability to become full of this nectar, My Tangible Touching Presence, Love-Bliss.
You must become Filled to the crown. I in-Fill you from Above, but you become full from the bottom, in some sense. When the level of the wine rises, it gets to the top last — and, yet, it has to come in from the top to begin with. You see how it works.
And when it is full, there’s no more up or down, because it’s full. There’s no position relative to up or down — it’s the “Thumbs”, if I am allowed most profoundly, ego-forgettingly, given up in heart-Communion with Me. It is “intoxication” of life. But more and more so — not done occasionally, a little bit, and so forth, but truly, most profoundly done — it is Filled by Me. It is Me, in heart-Communion with Me, you see — all else Melted, such that there is utter transparency to Me.
Only when you accommodate Me, all the way down to the base, does the cup begin to become full. Not an impediment. It’s this in-Filled Realization of Me beyond egoity that is the Enjoyment of My devotee. All else is preparation. That Enjoyment is the transcending of that which is, otherwise, Raymond’s “problem” — all the change and mortality, all the inevitabilities and this and that. This relationship, this asana, this Way, this Process in heart-Communion with Me, transcends that. Not merely in attitude, but in in-Filling. To demonstrate the Way of Adidam truly, it must become a Spiritual matter of true devotion to Me — fully lived, and Yogically lived, to the point of becoming a Fullness of Me, Tangibly Present. And all the signs that come from that. Until then, the virtue of the Way of Adidam is not yet Full, and your Realization of it likewise. That Fullness must become Most Perfectly Realized, Most Perfectly Demonstrated.
No matter how much you know about the Way of Adidam, until it becomes Full of Me, literally, in this Yogic devotion, it’s only a beginning. The beginning is necessary, because there needs to be a foundation in every aspect of life. There needs to be responsibility for the gross aspects of the character, the egoic presumption, the ego-asana, “Narcissus” looking at himself.
That knot is you. It’s a pattern of point of view. It is bereft of Me. It has nothing to do with Divine Realization, Realization of Reality Itself. It’s the opposite of that asana. It is the ball, not the cup — not the open, upturned cup, but the ball. The whole form and feature crunched upon itself, a kind of knot of individuality.
“Samraj Asana” isn’t merely a shaping of the physical body in a certain position, such that everything then follows. “Samraj Asana” is a Yogic form. It comes about in response to devotional heart-recognition of Me, which becomes Spiritual Communion with Me. It is not ego-based, it’s not a seeker’s gesture, and so on. It’s not merely to assume a position physically and hold it — that’s not it. It’s a matter of heart-Communion with Me, transcending “self” and the self-knot, therefore. There are certain kinds of Realizations that can come about by holding oneself in place that can relate to any of the stages of life, truly. But it’s all point of view, the pattern that persists.
There must be a full cup, fully Realizing Me now, whatever the nature of the “now” is, whenever, wherever. If the cup isn’t full, you’re still working on your asana.
It must become one immense cup, indeed. All the oceans on earth are piss, compared to the size of that cup. As soon as you can get out of the way, it stops being miniaturized.
Let's focus on this passage for a moment:
You must become Filled to the crown. I in-Fill you from Above, but you become full from the bottom, in some sense. When the level of the wine rises, it gets to the top last — and, yet, it has to come in from the top to begin with. You see how it works.
story about pool filling up when I was a kid.
Without extending the practice down to the whole body, one can easily end up having part of oneself (in my case, the head and the heart) devoted to self-transcendence, but another part (in my case, the vital) still full of all kinds of hidden, uninspected motives and desires that are powering unconscious seeking.
The "soup of egoity" (the former content of the cup) — which contains all kinds of "ingredients" that are less than Happiness — is replaced by the monochromatic Happiness of Adi Da's Divine State. One develops a new value system around that feeling of Happiness: one delights in and values the purity of the Happiness State, in contrast with the roughness and endless, variegated less-than-happy sensations, feelings of difference, feelings of separation, knottedness, etc. in the egoic state — the full pool vs. the hardly wet pool with all the rough variations of the earth below poking through the bottom liner.
If you and I play were to play a game where you say a number, and I say the first thing that springs to mind, and you said “3”, I’d tell you, “three glowing balls of fire”. Or three glowing spheres of feeling. And that's because, experientially, the practice of moment-to-moment turning feels like that.
In the natural process of this feeling-Contemplation of What Is, the breath has become minute. There are no big movements of the breather. The breath is hardly noticeable. It is a tiny sniff in and out. Frequently there are no opposites, there is no movement, there is no inhalation-exhalation. Finally, there is kumbhak, or suspension of breath, and, thereby, suspension of attention to body and exercises of emotion and mind in combination with conditions, and there is direct entrance into the Contemplative state, in the form of various Samadhis.
The general practice I have Given you is not about observing breaths, counting breaths, noticing breaths in any technical fashion.
It is about entering into relationship with Me via the breath, Communing with Me via the breath.
The breath is not the subject of your practice. I Am! All the faculties of the body-mind must be devoted to Me, and, since breath is a primary faculty, you must exercise yourself in relation to Me via the breath.
The practice is not to get very curious about the breaths themselves, or finicky about breathing. It is to devote yourself to Me completely and to use the leading faculties of the body-mind as a principal mechanism for it. It is a devotional practice, then, not merely a functional one.
The Spirit-Blessing is received frontally, through breathing It in. It is not a matter of letting yourself disappear or becoming negated, but of receiving my Blessing to you, breathing It in, opening up your feeling, feeling It in your face, your eyes, all the parts of your face, your head, your brain.
Breathe It into your throat, all of your chest, down to your heart, and your solar plexus and your abdomen. Breathe It into your vital organ. That is how you know you have received my Blessing. That is how you receive the Holy Spirit — frontally, through inbreathing.
Having received It, then you exhale, release It, relax yourself altogether, and shoot It up the spine into the brain and beyond.
That then is your gift. That is what you bring to the Spiritual Master. What you receive from the Spiritual Master you receive frontally. You in-breathe It, you inhale It. Then you exhale as a sacrifice, having received It.
You cannot exhale and release It until you have received It. You receive It in your face, your heart, your abdomen, your vital life, in this bag of guts here! You feel It tangible, know that It is there, regardless of any activity on your part.
* * *
Fundamentally, “radical” devotion to Me is a moment to moment practice. In terms of the breath, it is to practice reception and release directly in relation to Me — receiving Me, releasing yourself, releasing all content.
It is a random noticing and engaging of the breath. If the practice is done rightly, artfully, at random, then (effectively) every breath becomes devotional Communion with Me, the process of receiving Me, releasing yourself into devotional Communion with Me.
The conductivity practice in Adidam begins by circulating the natural energy of the body-mind down the frontal line and then up the spinal line. As practice in Adidam develops, in addition to that natural energy, the Hridaya-Shaktipat — the Divine Spirit-Blessing — is circulated down the frontal line and up the spinal line.
The Adidam practice of conductivity involves two circuits that overlap (see diagram below): the circuit of natural energy around the circle in the body-mind (red); and the much larger circuit of Divine Spirit-Blessing, that starts with the Divine infinitely above the head, descends down to the head, then down the frontal line, then up the spinal line, then returns to the Divine, infinitely above the head (purple). The two circuits overlap in the body-mind, where we are conducting both the natural energy of the body and the Divine Spirit-Blessing.
Click image to enlarge
Conductivity of the Spirit-Blessing is as much a matter of feeling as it is breathing. You definitely must breathe deeply — deep enough for the breathing to touch the perinium. But you also must be fully feeling, from the head all the way down to the perinium, and you must be locating Adi Da and His Spirit-Blessing with that feeling capability, by allowing the feeling to be a response to Him. Another way of describing it: you are invoking the Divine, and allowing the Divine to Emerge, all along your frontal line, in synch with the breath.
When you have gained facility at conductivity, then the turn of the Spirit-Blessing around the circle at the perineum will match Adi Da's description: you "shoot It up the spine into the brain and beyond". But before I developed that facility, it was very useful to just focus on getting the Spirit-Blessing around the perineum and feeling that Happiness strongly, first in the perineum itself, and then in the lowest part of the spine just above the base. (So at the end of the inhalation, I am breathing deeply and am feeling the Spirit-Blessing hit the perinium.) When this becomes comfortable, natural, and easy, then you focus on bringing It up a little higher. And then a little higher. And so on — until finally, you can "shoot It" all the way up the spine, so that the entire spine is full of the Spirit-Blessing.
Apart from what is required for breathing, you are not using any muscles (e.g. back muscles). You may find it useful to do a light kegel both to "contain" the Spirit-Blessing (keeping It from leaking out the base) and to "direct" It upward. But only a very light kegel — otherwise you can end up obstructing the Current.
The "movement" in the circle — both down the front and up the back — may not even feel like a "flow". It may feel more like you are feeling more and more areas of Happiness "turn on", "light up", or "Emerge", further and further down the frontal line, and then further and further up the spinal line, until the whole circle is lit up. It's not the Divine turning a finite "piece" of Itself into a liquid stream and sending It flowing through the circle!
One thing you should understand relative to breathing-“conductivity”: It is not really a matter of breathing Me in. It is a matter of breathing in Me.
I am All-Pervading. Therefore, inside the body or outside the body, what you are doing with the breathing, founded in the heart-disposition, is allowing the body to move into a state of equanimity in Me.
If you have been a lifelong shallow breather, you very likely have been using only the upper chest muscles for breathing. But deep breathing requires using the diaphragm in the abdomen as well. And when you raise the Spirit Blessing in the spinal line, you also must be using the diaphragm. You can’t do it with the chest muscles alone! But if you’ve been a lifelong shallow breather, you inadvertently may be trying to do just that. If that is the case, you need to consciously develop a new habit. You'll know you're using the diaphragm because you'll feel the abdomen moving in and out.
If, like me, your vital area has been largely collapsed and contracted for much of your life, then when you focus on the spinal ascent of the Spirit-Blessing, there may be a tendency for the frontal line to collapse in the vital area, relapsing to your former habitual, contracted state. It can even feel like you are needing to empty out the vital of the Spirit-Blessing in order to shoot It up the spine. But in fact, there's nothing preventing the vital (and, indeed, the full frontal line) from remaining uncontracted and full of the Spirit-Blessing even as more of the Spirit-Blessing is appearing in the spine — until the entire circle is full of the Spirit-Blessing. (We'll talk about transcending the "vital shock" — the self-contraction in the abdominal area — in the next chapter.)
The more Spirit-Blessing there is in the circle, the easier it is to circulate it around the circle. So it's easier to fill the spine with the Spirit-Blessing if the frontal line is full of the Spirit-Blessing (rather than "spotty" — a little here, a little there).
It is also natural during times of relaxation for the breathing to be deep and slow, and for there to be a few seconds of kumbak (pause) after the inhalation (but before the exhalation), and after the exhalation (but before the inhalation). This is not anything you try to make happen — it happens spontaneously. However, if you notice that it is not happening, the reason is typically that the breathing is contracted to some degree, and so you need to locate and release the contraction, to allow kumbak to occur.
The conductivity practice in Adidam is very different from the practices of the Kundalini traditions. The Kundalini practice shoots the natural energy of the body-mind up the spinal line to the crown chakra (without any awareness that there is also a frontal line and a circle, and that the energy in the base of the spine is coming from the frontal line, not from some mysterious source of energy at the base). The conductivity practice in Adidam begins by circulating the natural energy of the body-mind down the frontal line and then up the spinal line. As practice in Adidam develops, in addition to that natural energy, the Hridaya-Shaktipat — the Divine Spirit-Blessing — is circulated down the frontal line and up the spinal line. The primary purpose of that "Crashing Down" of the Divine in the circle of the body-mind is to purify the whole body-mind, preparing the being to transcend the body-mind and enter into the Perfect Practice, which takes place in Consciousness Itself, not the body-mind. In contrast, the purpose of the Kundalini traditions is to shoot the energy up the spine to the crown chakra and activate various spiritual/visionary experiences as a result.
. . .each cycle of breathing is full and profound, so that bodily and relational feeling is heightened and expanded with each inhalation and exhalation.
The pattern of breathing that we observe in these periods of ease is the true and natural breath cycle, the unobstructed mechanism whereby we contact the Radiant Current of Divine Life and conduct its Energy throughout the body and even allow it to pervade the World. Under the more ordinary or active circumstances of life we do not tend to breathe in this way. Observe yourself. Feel the shallow inhalation and almost nonexistent exhalation of your usual breathing. Feel the contractions in the body as the breath encounters tangible obstructions. Feel the urgency in the breathing, as if breath and existence itself were threatened. Such breathing is inherently dis-eased; it barely sustains even the gross physical functions of oxygenation and elimination of toxic wastes via the lungs.The natural cycle of the breath, in contrast, is a primary element of the practice of religious and spiritual life, and it is the secret of health and longevity, for it is through right breathing (as well as Awakened Feeling-Intuition) that we feed upon the Divine Current of Radiance that animates, sustains, and regenerates us whole bodily, and ultimately dissolves us into Itself.
The retained breath, or kumbak, as it is called in the yogic traditions, is essential to the natural cycle of breathing. Via the inhalation, the Life-Force circulates throughout the body, purifying it of emotional and mental as well as physical obstructions, harmonizing its functions, and enlivening every cell with Bio-Energy. When the inhalation is retained, the Life-Force has more time to do its purifying, balancing, and rejuvenating work. Likewise, when the exhalation is retained, the toxic obstructions (physical, emotional, and mental) dissolved by the inhalation and kumbak are fully expelled, and the Life-Force itself is allowed to radiate through all the bodily functions to Infinity.
Full, steady, and conscious breathing, with kumbak, is a primary practice of conscious exercise. We should enter into Love-Communion with the Living God under all conditions, via all our actions, and, in that natural alignment to Life, the feeling breath attains its proper order—full, at ease, with natural pauses at the end of every inhalation and every exhalation. (It was by this pattern of breathing and feeling, combined with other right moral, personal, psychic, and spiritual disciplines, that the ancients realized Divine happiness and extraordinary longevity.)
Even though they are not the purpose of the Divine Spirit-Blessing, Adi Da has said that kriyas, visions, and blisses can occur as as a secondary effect of the Hridaya Shaktipat. I'll mention just one such secondary effect in my own experience.
While I was focusing on learning how to conduct the Spirit-Blessing up the spinal line, I had an unusual dream. In the dream, my back was pressed against the body of a woman. She told me her name was Philomela.[1] We were pressing against each other, my back to her body, and the feeling was one of intense Bliss in my spinal line (and the Bliss "included" both of us, so she was feeling it too). It was like a sexual experience, but it was happening entirely in the spinal line, not the genitals. I awoke from the dream, and continued to feel that intense Bliss in the spine.
"Diving into a bucket" analogy.
"Filling up the cup" refers to the whole body. So that eventually includes arms and legs. At one point in the process, I developed a kriya that involved me allowing my arm (one or the other) to shake rapidly as Adi Da's Divine State entered it. As with most kriyas, this one indicated an early stage of adaptation, where the arms were not yet used to conducting the Force of the Spirit-Blessing. Once the arm had fully adapted to conducting Adi Da's Love-Bliss, the kriya stopped.
The moment you cease your focus on filling the cup, the cup starts emptying via increasing self-contraction (which squeezes out the Divine State). So an important milestone is reaching the point where you fill the cup enough regularly so that even any remaining lapses do not result on emptying the cup, but just lowering the level a bit.
At a certain point, through Adi Da's Grace, one reaches a point where one can do the basic practice with consistent success. The turning is consistently recognition; the "feeling beyond the contraction" in the vital actually works; etc.
Such consistent success is the counter to the two doubts I mentioned in the last chapter about "whether the practice works" and "whether I can do the practice". Before reaching this point, practice can feel like trying to fit a key in a lock in the dark. Sometimes it works, other times it doesn’t. But there isn’t a consistency. That lack of consistent success can be dis-motivating for some devotees. But when it becomes consistent — even in the manner of an 80/20 rule (you can do it successfully 80% of the time, the remaining 20% are still "in progress"), it provides another strong motivation to do the practice and to grow further in practice (e.g., make the 80% be 100%).
Filling pool story
Arrow / Sphere
The moveless, changeless, All-Pervading Divine and the use of metaphors like: Crashing Down of the Divine; feel Me in all your parts; breathe Me; etc.
The tuning fork metaphor
The metaphor of ocean waves: apparent forward movement, but no actual forward movement.
Proximity principle: the Divine resonating the head naturally leads to resonance in the proximate neck; and then in the promiximate chest; etc. But the fact that sometimes I'll feel my head glowing and then my abdomen glowing next indicates that that proximity is not always necessary; sometimes the Happiness just Emerges from the Divine Domain in a non-sequential manner.
repeat simple description of practice from introduction
Essential that the tacit awareness of "What is Greater" be greater than the body-mind, in order to grow beyond the beginners practice. This was also the reason for Adi Da insistening on creating fabrications of His Image-Art that were larger in size than the human body-mind. Staring at His Image-Art on the screen of a cell phone simply does not have the same feeling impact.
Operational definition of recognition: tacit awareness of what is greater than you. Awareness of the Divine State of Unlimited Happiness associated with That. The tacit awareness of the Ocean of Happiness surrounding you. Awareness that is always present. The response to recognition thus operationally defined is a "filling the pool" operation. You tacitly know the cup can be filled by the Ocean of Happiness. (You always know what is to look, feel, and act completely Happy.) You can get there via all kinds of sequences. But the endpoint is the same: the full cup.
Related Resources:
FOOTNOTES
| [1] |
|
