Turning the light of awareness around

[Boy]

...

Edited January 15, 2014 by Boy

[silent thunder]

its something I got out of attenuating the shit out of all my cranial nerves - I found myself staring at the inside of my skull independent of my eyes, coming from the center, then you really start realizing how stereo your eye-vision is. its amongst the many reasons I keep advocating a rote method at doing things and getting there. all these interesting things emerge just from simple execution & observation.

 

This reminds me of accounts of people opening to 360 degree spherical awareness/vision.

[joeblast]

Aha! Another senseless post.

hahaha 5 thieves, 12 thieves, however you want to classify 'em

[Songtsan]

This reminds me of accounts of people opening to 360 degree spherical awareness/vision.

 

I have also heard of this and would like to experience it

[Taomeow]

double

Edited January 10, 2014 by Taomeow

[Taomeow]

 

Taomeow, I am thoroughly intrigued by your description of this practice. Descriptions of this detail are hard to come by in general written media. Is this the way it is taught by teachers in your experience?

 

The way you put it reminds me of statements from this essay on sufi meditations and the imaginal realm:

 

 

 

In my own experience, relying on intuition and personal resonance with the simplest teachings (rather than, say, detailed instructions by a human teacher in one of the lineages from which those words are used), I came to interpret the terms "turning the light around on itself" in the following manner:

 

There is an impulse behind the urge to "pursue" things with one's senses… In other words, for whatever pops up, be it concrete or subtle, to any sense, there is a whole lot of habitual pull… This "pull" is tied to an addiction of sorts, the addiction of scattering the light of awareness into the senses and thoughts-- while we remain disconnected from the integrity of its (potentially infinite) finer operations. When we get experience with letting this "pull" pass without giving into the urge to pursue it, more of our awareness accumulates within and we become more aware of the subtle foundations behind this phenomena. Deep in these subtle foundations, there is some kind of threshold or gate from which a primordial fount of pre-awareness emerges and flows into the mind and senses. Distilling one's senses back into this primal light and then returning it to itself, directing it upon itself, allowing it to manifest qualities within its own non-projected, non-reflected domain, produces the inversion of ordinary existence into trans-mundane illuminations. This new "light turned in on itself" allows one to explore the authentic inner body and universe, and is some kind of "substance" of its own which transcends ordinary limitations. (All in a manner of degrees, it seems. I can only speak in terms of glimpses. )

I'm curious how this take of mine relates to the one you've shared, or how it doesn't. Any thoughts?

Hi Arktos, welcome to the forum (if you're new rather than reincarnated)

 

Cool about the sufi parallel! I do suspect they share some original sources with "my people."

 

As for the details, yes, that's how a great teacher teaches in my experience -- with much focus on subtle and not-so-subtle technicalities and without top-heavy metaphysics. Whatever comes as the outcome of grasping the technique and the idea is left to the student to process, interpret, marvel at or get further instructed by from within. Tao is in the details...

 

As for your "relying on intuition and personal resonance," what you describe seems very right on to me, but precisely because it is subjective "interpretations" rather than objective "techniques," it would be difficult to get someone else to learn. I try to deliberately avoid poetic expressions when talking about these things (and so do my teachers) though poetry is indeed, invariably, what floods your consciousness when a practice goes well -- it makes your soul eloquent, so when you do want to express what your alchemy has distilled, you go to metaphor, to allegory, to the magnificent "stylistics" of reality rather than its raw underpinnings and ball bearings. When it's fully operational, there's infinitely many ways to describe it. But when one is learning how to get it to work, it's more like, flip this switch, don't touch that button, nevermind the flickering screen, pay attention to this-here indicator... stuff like that.

[Songtsan]

I started the exercise Friday night with a small orange and a kiwi, but I became distracted by Friday night...I will have to try again tonight or tomorrow

[Marblehead]

I started the exercise Friday night with a small orange and a kiwi, but I became distracted by Friday night...I will have to try again tonight or tomorrow

Well, on your next attempt instead of orange and kiwi try some Southern Comfort. If you drink enough you won't get distracted.

[Brian]

Well, on your next attempt instead of orange and kiwi try some Southern Comfort. If you drink enough you won't get distracted.

 

Or you just won't care...

 

[silent thunder]

Well, on your next attempt instead of orange and kiwi try some Southern Comfort. If you drink enough you won't get distracted.

and you may get a great nap!

[Marblehead]

and you may get a great nap!

Hehehe. I promise, you WILL get a great nap.

[Songtsan]

I haven't yet started this practice, but it appears that the unseating, or movement of the awareness is a key 'beginning' to advance here...it seems like this practice might directly effect that, but are there other practices and tips to help me to un-contain myself? I want to start moving around!