Imagine there is a dark room. Inside there is a lot of furniture, among which is a small cupboard containing a precious gem. You are asked to get that gem. But there are problems. Not only is the room completely dark, but the pieces of furniture are moving around at rapid speed. How will you ever get to the gem?
You will have to not just turn on the lights, but also stop the speeding furniture. You must find the gaps and spaces between the furniture to find the gem.
That is why, in order to find the Gem of the Self, we need both Awareness (turning on the light), and the ability to find the gap between our thoughts (speeding furniture). Let me say this again—we need both!
Fortunately, Awareness facilitates our ability to STOP the thoughts. Once we are able to “turn the lights on” by being AWARE, we will then be able to STOP the movement of our mental thoughts, be at the GAPs, and find our way towards the inner Gem. But to do so, you will first need empty space to move around.
Today’s meditation is a very special and advanced one. Moving beyond the head and the Heart means intuiting the hole or cavity in the brain and Heart where we can find unalloyed and uninterrupted Bliss and Joy.
We must strive to arrest the movement of the thoughts in order to locate the cavity of Joy in the brain. And we must also strive to arrest the movement of life force into the left side of the Heart, and locate the cavity at the right side.
Now we will begin the process of intuiting the two cavities or holes—one at the Third Eye and the other at the Heart…
The first part of this process is done by freezing the brain through a deep looking-within. So begin by first simply noticing the flow of thoughts. We close our eyes, and allow our AWARENESS of the flow of thoughts to arrest its movement. These thoughts condemn, justify, and spin stories around themselves. We simply accept the Void, but not the thoughts. We trust the GAP and the Void. Thoughts are nothing but ways to fix, dominate, control, complain, and worry. They are RANDOM thoughts that create obstacles. We are letting them all go, and allowing them to disappear into the GAP.
IN THIS MOMENT WE DO NOT NEED OUR THOUGHTS.
We are allowing ourselves to feel naturally and completely safe and secure. We trust this Emptiness and Nothingness. And from this state of pure Nothingness and Void emerges a pathway within the Third Eye. And as we move within the Third Eye, we begin to experience total Void—the brain will be nothing but total space.
So the first pathway or cavity is in the Third Eye where the random thoughts are silenced. As thoughts begin to be silenced in our brain, we feel sucked into our Third Eye, where we begin to float in the Void inside.
Now we will begin the process of intuiting the cavity or hole at the right side of the Heart. The first practice of moving stillness into our Third Eye prepares us for this advanced process. Here you will meet the real you—the SELF.
The moment I mention the right side of the Heart, most of us will begin to move into the area of the chest, and try to stay there or move energy there. But that is NOT how Sri Ramana prescribed. He gave only one instruction called, “Summa Iru,” which means “JUST BE.” That means putting forth no effort to know the SELF, but simply Being. Sri Ramana gave this instruction because the more effort we will put into knowing the SELF, the more frustrated we will become. It all becomes a quest of the mind.
But how do we attain what Sri Ramana instructed? The way to know the SELF is through the INNOCENCE of a pure Heart. And the first rule in attaining such innocence and purity is to be honest and AUTHENTIC. It is obvious that we have to be authentic all the time, and not just in our sitting meditations or other practices. It is not about forcing the life force into the right side of the Heart. No amount of forcing the prana to the right will help.
We are not required to change anything. There is no demand except to be authentic and real in our search for the SELF. And to be authentic, I have to begin from where I am at this moment itself. Otherwise, I would be someone else. We must have the character and strength to allow and accept ourselves to be how and what we are, without the interference and manipulation of the mind.
Thus, the process here is entirely different. We are going to do nothing except allow and accept everything we are in this moment. We will not focus on any specific thing or area specific, but simply allow everything. We will allow all kinds of thoughts, good or bad. Allow all kinds of sensations, pleasurable or painful. Allow all kinds of feelings, loving or fearful, to emerge and arise. This will activate within us both the left side and the right side of the Heart—the left being our humanness, and the right being our Divineness. We will accept ALL.
We will accept our fears, our weaknesses, our desires (both human and spiritual), our conditionings, our defenses, our strengths, our purity, our impurities, and everything else that makes us what we are—what I AM.
There will be no judgments, nor opinions. Everything will be cast aside and I will simply relax into knowing both my left side and right side. I will accept BOTH totally. I will look and accept even the way I judge things—like my desire to be free and not bound by the limitations of my humanness.
I can also allow my mind to drift anywhere it wants to go, and I will simply remind myself to relax and accept. There will sometimes be a pull towards the left side with all its human desires, and sometimes towards the right with all its spiritual goals. I will accept BOTH equally, and allow the pull to take place. I will be patient enough to watch how this process unfolds. As it does, I will keep breathing and relaxing.
The right side will tell me what I NEED to do—be detached, be humble, and practice spirituality by honoring the life force and the breathing practices, and by serving others. Meanwhile, the left will entice me with what I WANT to do—be in the world, profit from it, and desire it.
Everything has weight—both right and left sides. This weight we carry is called “concepts,” and so both sides exert their pulls and influence on us. Accept and allow BOTH. Then RELAX. In this way, we can end the conflict between the two, instead of being a part of that conflict.
Simply watch, accept, and relax as ourselves, no matter what is presented within to us—material or spiritual. Nothing is specifically desired. BUT all is accepted. The body is NOT desired. The breath is NOT desired. Thought is NOT desired. Bliss is NOT desired. Peace is NOT desired. Purification is NOT desired. Worship is NOT desired.
YET, EVERYTHING is accepted and allowed! Neither the left side nor the right side is desired, YET both are fully accepted. When everything that arises from within you is accepted as it is, WITHOUT ANY FORM OF MANIPULATION, BUT WITH TRUTH AND HONESTY, then and ONLY then the cavity of the Heart opens up. Humanness is also Divine—just like the wave is also the ocean. So accept it all.
In this meditation, the left side of the heart (humanness) is also acknowledged. And in fact, it is allowed to be expressed as it wants, in terms of thoughts and feelings.
NOTHING IS NOT ALLOWED!
There is no resistance to any kind of feeling or thoughts, because we are AWARE that they come from either our humanness or divineness. And BOTH are accepted.
Please remember that “accepting” the feeling or sensation means continuing to persist in being with it for as long as needed to clear the pathway towards the spiritual Heart. But because we are not fighting with ourselves or any particular thought, and simply watching and allowing everything, we will save energy and be able to attend to THAT point where there is inner unity—where both left and right meet.
We are allowing the complex human body-mind and the spiritual body-mechanism to operate on their own will without any interference, except watching, allowing and relaxing more and more. Soon the feeling, emotion, and thoughts will dissolve and leave us in a state of neutral Void, or in deep acceptance and peace.
Automatically the left side will begin to dissolve into the right side, and the Spiritual Heart will begin to open up to receive Peace, Bliss and Love.
The vasanas of the left side will be consumed by the Wisdom of the right. Only when we learn to forgive ourselves, can we love ourselves, and only when we can love ourselves, can we truly love others. It is only then that our heart will begin to smile or feel warmth—will begin to LOVE.
In short, by allowing, watching, and accepting the pulls of both the left and right sides, we NEUTRALIZE the two, ending the conflict and effortlessly allowing the left to slip into the right. That is how clarity, honesty, authenticity and innocence emerge.
The moment the two sides meet, the conflict is over, and the door opens. The cavity and the hole become wide open. Love happens. The gate opens, God enters, and the ego drops. And that is how we begin to live our lives 24 by 7.
Through authentic living, acceptance becomes easier, and opens the window of innocence and purity for LOVE to HAPPEN—A LOVE not for just one person or a few people, but for everyone. Our hearts will become alive and will beat with so much Love that they will become gardens of beautiful, fragrant roses sowing seeds of newness and freshness each and every moment.
Intuit the Sacred Cavities in the Heart and the Brain
