Vedik Healing using Stillness and Ancient Wisdom.

A Sage will tell me, “can you see the right and wrong , can you see the good and bad, light and shadow? Can you see the dance ?” Can you “be the Dance“?

A Seer will suggest, “you see right and wrong, light and shadow, because they are in ‘you’. Your ’self’ is identifying through them. True Self is the Witness. True Self is the Stillness in your heart. Can you be the Witness? Can you be the Mountain?” Can you “be the Stillness”?

Siddha will point to me, “what is light and shadow? what is right and wrong? Nothing but energy! Everything is energy. Stillness is the source and Energy is the Spring-of-Life! Can you flow freely like a Spring?” Can you “be the Spring-of-life”?

Our journey of life passes through many refuges, some give us happiness and some cause us to suffer. This sacred journey often make us to look for a path that will resolve our suffering and connect us with continuous source of happiness. In my journey, I have come to realize that this seeking unfolds into four ways of perception:

The way of Sages: is the most ancient, and universal  where man is engaged in a dance - the dance of devas (light) and asuras(dark), right and wrong, good and bad, affirming and denying. Sages, tell us that we can find happiness if we align ourselves with light and avoid shadows. It’s the path of virtuous discrimination and sages also tell us that light will never stay at one place and shadow will some day loose it’s darkness. Happiness is something you always seek but never can hold on to. It comes and it goes away. We are filled and then emptied. Things are always in flux and we have to keep dancing and this dance-of-life keeps us going.

The way of Seers: These men were called āraṇyakas - “the forest dwellers”. These seers wrote Upanishads and defined the various paths of Yoga. Their insight tells us that we are experiencing light and darkness outside because it is inside us. It’s our desire from within that makes the outer world go around. There mantra is “I am that, you are that, Self is that and That is that”. Self-realization is there path. “I am  suffering” and “I am happy” because my ‘Self” has identified with the suffering and/or joy. It is matter of orienting the Self within to change the without. To them happiness and suffering are the pointers of our inner-compass that we use to align ourselves within. The true nature of our Self is Luminous-All-knowing-Bliss (satchidananda). As long as we reside in our True-Self, with complete stillness, we experience the endless joy of bliss. Any movement from this state will put us back into the dance-of-life.

They way Siddhas: A Siddha follows the path of Tantra which means “to weave” and “to transform or to transmute”. They tell us that we all are woven into one interconnected endless web of life-force or energy. A Siddha uses energy to transform their limited self to the unlimited-being-of-joy. Their wisdom says that every aspect of universe, light, dark, neutral, inner, outer, happiness, suffering is a doorway or a portal that we can skillfully use to transform our limited “sense of self” to “unlimited One”. Their cosmology is holographic: All are embedded in One and One is present in all. Everything originates from Stillness and is dissolved into it. We make our heart still and the Spring-of-life will flow freely. Here are the beautiful words of Pema Chödrön (which reflects the way of Siddha):
“When we examine this process we learn something very interesting: there is no resolution. The resolution that human beings seek comes from a tremendous misunderstanding. We think we can resolve everything! When we human beings feel powerful energy, we tend to be extremely uncomfortable until things are resolved in some kind of secure and comforting way, either on the side of yes or the side of no. Or the side of right or the side of wrong. Or the side of anything at all that we can hold on to.

But the practice we’re doing gives us nothing to hold on to. Actually, the teachings themselves give us nothing to hold on to. In working with patience and fearlessness, we learn to be patient with the fact that we’re human beings, that everyone who is born and dies from the beginning of time until the end of time is naturally going to want some kind of resolution to this edgy, moody energy. And there isn’t any. The only resolution is temporary and just causes more suffering. We discover that as a matter of fact joy and happiness, peace, harmony and being at home with yourself and your world come from sitting still with the moodiness of the energy until it rises, dwells and passes away. The energy never resolves itself into something solid.

So all the while, we stay in the middle of the energy. The path of touching in on the inherent softness of the genuine heart is to sit still and be patient with that kind of energy. We don’t have to criticize ourselves when we fail, even for a moment, because we’re just completely typical human beings; the only thing that’s unique about us is that we’re brave enough to go into these things more deeply and explore beneath our surface reaction of trying to get solid ground under our feet.”  Excerpted from The Answer to Anger & Aggression is Patience, Pema Chödrön, Shambhala Sun, March 2005.

The way of Sufis: These have been least understood and they have managed to stay under the radar in every age, including present day. There message and importance in the eastern or western cosmology has never changed. Their mode of passing wisdom has also stayed same - master to apprentice. One-on-one. They have been given many names, mystics, sufi, sant, gyanis, gurus, baba, bhakta, sai, pir, faqir, master, etc. they perceive every individual has unique relationship with the One. It is through this unique relationships that One becomes many. “One and many” is nothing but a play of love. Everything is One and the difference is “degree of Love” in the relationship. The self is limited by the love one has realized for the Beloved . Our actions are defined by our “sense of self” we think “I am doing it” and Sufi knows that “Beloved is making us do everything” Suffering and Happiness are perceived different because there is “I” or sense of limited-self. To Sufi they are one and the same as they both come for the Beloved. Here are the two poem of Rumi expressing the Love and Grace of the One.

Two Poems by Jalaluddin Rumi:

THE EMBRYO
When the time comes for the embryo
to receive the spirit of life,
at that time the sun begins to help.
This embryo is brought into movement,
for the sun quickens it with spirit.

From the other stars this embryo
received only an impression,
until the sun shone upon it.
How did it become connected
with the shining sun in the womb?

By ways hidden from our senses:
the way whereby gold is nourished,
the way a common stone becomes a garnet
and the ruby red,
the way fruit is ripened,
and the way courage comes
to one distraught
with fear.
MATHNAWI I, 3775-3782

What Was Said to the Rose
What was said to the rose that made it open
was said to me here in my chest.
What was told the Cypress that made it strong
and straight, what was
whispered the jasmine so it is what it is, whatever made
sugarcane sweet, whatever
was said to the inhabitants of the town of Chigil in
Turkestan that makes them
so handsome, whatever lets the pomegranate flower blush
like a human face, that is
being said to me now. I blush. Whatever put eloquence in
language, that’s happening here.
The great warehouse doors open; I fill with gratitude,
chewing a piece of sugarcane,
in love with the one to whom every that belongs!

Rise, O Moon,
and spread your light across the heavens;
the stars remember you in silent prayers,
their hearts glimmering with hope.
Now, like beggars,
we roam the alleyways of earthly life,
when once in our own Homeland,
we were merchants of rubies.

O, may no one ever have to leave his own home,
for one is not worth a piece of straw in this alien land!
They need not clap their hands
to startle us out of this world, O Bhau;
we are already disposed to fly back
to our long-lost Home.

- Sultan Bahu

Before there was sunshine and before there were starry nights

I was the Wind and I was the Fire
I was the Ocean and I was the Mountain
I was the Rose and I was the Garden
I was the Dance and I was the Dancer

Before there was sunshine and before there were starry nights

I was asked to go with Time;
My fall through Crack was long and deep;
Buried under Wisdom and Understanding, Love I seek.

The Thundering Voice of Silence lifted the Veil of Dark Night;
My Heavenly Heart was filled with Purple Light.

BigSur - 12/09/07

The winds of Mara are brewing the Furious Storm;
The Heart is aching, for times to come.

O Brave Heart! This is the way of Rumi and John;
the ‘I’ has to go, for ‘we’ to become One.

There is a light-show in the Crystal Palace;
Six whirling dervishes and a yogini in the center place;
Essence is hidden in the form and form is the veil of emptiness;
It’s the Dance of Shiva! without beginning and endless.

heart ocean overflowing, tear in the one eye;

sweet Frangipani, yearning for the flicker of first light.

music of raindrops on the bamboo roof;

dancing sea-horse in the still water.

If you believe that you can create your future just by your efforts and disciplined actions then you are a believer of ‘free-will’, however if you believe that your actions are a result of circumstances/environment or other people’s action around you and you have no control over the choices you make or effort you put behind your actions then you are here for a ‘free-ride’.

In my experience, most teachers have either one or the other belief system and attitude. Teachers of first approach will ask you to strive hard in achieving the concentration of mind and enlightenment. You are extremely fortunate to be born as a human and to hear about the teachings. Don’t waste this precious moment. Meditate vigorously. In the other approach, there is nothing to gain or loose, nowhere to go. The very effort you make to be enlightened will prevent from making the progress. Simply live according to the ‘Divine Will’, be present, right here right now and everything will be taken care of by itself.

In Buddhist belief system the first approach is explained under by karma philosophy: your action will get you the results. And the second is approached by interdependent-origination, that is “I am because we are”. I have seen arguments and applications of both sides of thought in various aspects of life.

The law of karma gives destiny in the hand of individual and creates culture, society and commerce that values and pays for individual’s skills and effort. Most justice systems around the world are based on judging the accountability of an individual’s action in a particular situation.

On the other hand, interdependent-origination system of thought is extended to into the belief system which values “collective action” more than the individual action. In this system of thought a person (a part) is not responsible for the action but community (the whole) is responsible for creating/defining the person who took the actions. In this case, stock market will be considered responsible for creating companies and CEOs that are focused on growth at any cost, including personnel abuse and environment plunder, because the growth is the most valued metric for public companies on the street. In the same way a tyrant’s evil action will not be considered as his/her action but as the ‘will of it’s community’.

It seems to me that Dr. Jung understood both forces in the context of psyche. He refers to force of collective unconscious as that part of a person’s unconscious which is common to all humans. It contains archetypes, which are forms or symbols that are manifested by all people in all cultures. They are said to exist prior to experience, and are in this sense instinctual. Dr Jung also created the term ‘individuation process’, the process of becoming aware of oneself, of one’s make-up, and the way to discover one’s true, inner self. Dr. Jung seems to have spend all his life in understanding the interaction and unification of these two polar forces within the psyche and it’s impact on individual and society as a whole.

Very rarely I have met the One who goes beyond the both attitudes and unifies them to show us that they are nothing but polarized thoughts, not the absolutes. Situations may not be in our control but our attitude and intent is and the progress is made by uniting the polarities so that the mind can be made still. Only in a quite mind the wisdom of our true self arises. True mystics, yogis and Buddha have talked about going beyond polarized thoughts. They teach is that the right effort and action is that which simply arises out of our love for Divine. The only thing that matters is our connection to Divine and yes, we have to work for it and yes, we have to ‘live in the Divine Will’ to become awaken to it. To a rational mind it is a paradox, like particle and wave aspect of the matter or as Zen monk will simply say, it is an effortless effort.

In general, meditation process goes through three stages:

1. Quietness: This is the beginning stage where the practitioner focuses on quieting her mind by focusing the attention on ‘one and only one thing’, e.g. breath, word, music etc. This allows her to stay in the present moment. By staying in present moment and emptying the mind of all thoughts she experiences peace and ease in her body. It brings relaxation in the body and clarity of mind.

2. Witness: As the meditation deepens the practitioner slowly moves the attention from focusing ‘one and one thing only’ to becoming a ‘witness’, i.e. she focus being one with her body-mind and just be a witness to the process of ‘just sitting in present moment’ with the ‘empty mind’. In this stage the practitioner becomes one with her body-mind. She has more room in her mind. As the awareness of her inner body (the muscles, ligaments, nervous system, tendons, cardiovascular and other systems of the body) deepens, she steers away from the past or future and stays in the present moment of just ‘being’ — feeling totally relaxed.

3. Stillness: This is the stage of meditation where one looses words to explain the experience and language becomes poetic and esoteric. This is the stage where the awareness expands and the practitioner is absorbed into unwavering stillness where she feels her body-mind connected with cosmos as a whole. She looses the limited sense of ‘self’ and her awareness is filled with luminous archetypal geometric shapes and harmonious tones.