Doorway One – Enneagram One, First Chakra, Mass (Matter), element: Earth, physical body, sefira: Chokhmah, trigram: ch'ien (Heavens), Tarot symbols I. MAGICIAN and XI. FORCE

In the following episode, we are going to sum up all the four techniques of working with Mass presented so far. Basing on them, we will then attempt to formulate the general algorithm. How to work with the surrounding Material Reality and the resulting Stress, so it does not overwhelm, but to the contrary, inspire us and energize? Can we rid ourselves of Stress by mere change in the understanding of our world (rather then costly therapies)?

To answer this, we will have to first answer another question: What happens in meditation when we actually look at the idea of Mass? How does Stress crystallize in our bones and muscles? Or what is, in other words, the chemistry, of our relationship with objects?

Obviousness

In Doorway One, the best way to call Mass for practical purposes is obviousness. What is obviousness? It's the feeling that something is there.

The obviosness that you are having a problem.
The obviousness that you are not having a problem.
The obviousness that you are stressed (heavy, dense, tense, solid, exhausted)
The obviousness that you are a body.
The obviousness that you are depressed.

The obviousness that something must be done.

The obviousness that nothing can be done.

What's obvious on the level of feeling?

You can use the term to replace any of the above conditions, just for clarity and conciseness. You can also experiment, as need be, with its various substitutes:

Possible replacements for obviousness:

solidity, density, Mass, darkness, physicality, Stress, inertia, heaviness, tension, anger, numbness, materialness, ordinariness...
....as well as my favorites....
the Sheer Impossibility of This being something Else than it is

the Unending Stream of Events, Thoughts and Body Sensations
10.000 Eyes and Hands
the Human Anthouse

Define what it is for you

Using the ideas from above, define what obviousness is in your case for the purpose of the exercise.

Is it:

Obviousness that you are having this problem? This emotion? This emptiness?

Or maybe:

Obviousness that right now you feel like a heavy, numb piece of wood?

Or maybe:

...it's obvious that nothing can be done in this situation?

or that:

... you are cycling uphill panting and sweating heavily, feeling the fresh breeze on your face, pain in the muscles, thinking madly about your girlfriend's blue bikini?

In any case, you know what it means for you.

Time to start the process.

Doorway One – the process

Sit comfortably or lie down. Switch off the phone and make sure nobody disturbs. Prepare for an at least one hour meditative trip. Close your eyes.

Let's begin.

Take your obviousness. Now, as you contemplate it gently, ask yourself the questions below. Do it in any sequence, repeating many times, until you feel definite positive change in the quality of being. Every time answer the question honestly with a yes or no.

Can I accept this obviousness?
Can I let this obviousness be what it is, without trying to change it?
Can I sense some light at the outline of this obviousness?
Can I sense some part of this obviousness become Space?
Can I feel some curiosity about or around this obviousness?
Can I feel some mystery about or around this obviousness?
Can I feel some „air of discovery” around this obviousness?

All these are different angles to approach the same thing. To put it short: we want to come in touch with the Higher Mind that lies hidden „behind” the belief that something is there. In the case of Doorway One, this Higer Mind looks like:

• Space
• Light
• Acceptance
• Diffusing
• Curiosity
• Mystery
• Discovery
• Adventure

What we universally experience in deep, stress-releasing processes is that the finite piece of obvious SOMETHING diffuses into LIGHT of the above qualities.

Finally add the following questions:

Can I let it become less solid in my own experience?
Can I let it become more light and diffused – in my own experience?
Could I let it turn in to Light? Luminosity? Fragrance?
Can I let the Light show it to me in proper perspective?
Can I let myself experience the Infinite Space beyond?

The point is that this LIGHT should be experienced in the body and feelings, not as part of imagination or visualization. This is the most difficult part for the beginner. The Light should be the real experience, deep within flesh, bones and feeling – not the intellectual game, not the endorphin trip that goes on in the brain.

In other words, you should actually experience that your alleged obviousness - remains perhaps not so true as you thought. You should let your certainty be undermined. At least for now.

Advanced process

In the advanced version of the exercise you just keep giving yourself two short commands, one after the other, each time tuning in. Here's a couple of examples, but you can make your own:

Example:

Command 1: Solidity in the body (tune in)

Command 2: Curiosity (tune in)

or

Command 1: Stress (tune in)

Command 2: Mystery (tune in)

or

Command 1: The Unending Stream of Events, Thoughts and Body Sensations (tune in)

Command 2: [This situation is ] a Beautiful Insect from Andromeda Galaxy (tune in)

Make your own, favorite combo - and just remember what you mean when you say the words. Keep practicing, till you start feeling in a different way.

Eclipse

Some of you may say - that's all nice, but how to make the experience true? Aye, that's the rub! - as Hamlet would say. Some people wasted years to only begin answering this question. To some smart guys (and I was not one of them) it comes a lot quicker. So how to avoid making these exercises into pure visualization or imagination practice? I "visualized light" for years, so if anyone understands the dangers really well - hey! this is me.

How I would say it now: first and foremost, we need to be serious that we want to upgrade our state of being. If we just do the thing for experimentation, for fun, to feel "high", or to prove something to somebody, then sorry! - it will not work. We must really want to be free from something, something solid in our minds, something that disturbs us, we must be almost desperate do get rid of this negative vibration, this annoying grain of sand. Then we can work.

And again, when we work, let us not do it mechanically. Imagine you are addressing the situation (the grain of sand in your mind) as a living being, a living partner in communication, or, and why not?, a strange animal. Expect a real answer, and that means: really assume you don't know yet what it will be. Feel into it. Really feel into yourself, like you feel into a real person, a real conversation, real event. Be compassionate. Sense what's beyond. Discover.

Eclipse is the best metaphor. You are sensing for outlines of Light (a felt sense of luminosity) coming FROM BEYOND your object. Just like the light of Sun comes FROM BEYOND the traversing Moon during eclipse. What is BEYOND – is happening in a different dimension than what's HERE. This dimension is depth, but not physical depth. It's feeling depth.

Ask yourself:

Is there any „beyondness” in what I am sensing as „obvious”?

Self-certainty, eclipsed by Mass

Perhaps on the very outline of the feeling you will sense something emerging. It could be called ANOTHER PLANE – with completely different laws of physics, ones that do not involve intellectul understanding. You will recognize it, because when it comes, the mind is absolutely still. There is no Stress in the mind, only the feeling that you are removed from the picture and exist as a completely new way.

In this new modality You fully control your troublesome piece of Mass. There's no problem about it whatsoever. You know, you are sure, you recognize it for totally true, that your piece of Mass is just a transitory condensation on the otherwise open and blue sky. You understand perfectly that it's only one decision away to change it. This is very much like being God. This feeling of total Self-certainty, formerly eclipsed by Mass, comes to you now in its full splendor.

You don't need all the questions, all the time

The questions I have given here are an indicator. Please, don't get attached to them. They are devised to show you different points of entry to the same Big Thing. So it may happen that you just use one of them correctly, and then suddenly realize, that all the others are already contained within the first one. This often happens to me in meditation. I access Light, and then I see all these questions (and many others) floating around in Space. But I don't need them anymore, as at this point I more or less worldlessly commune with the Higher Mind. Watch out, for this might just as well happen to you. Questions are just a tool, once you get There – it gets a lot simpler.

This works!

What I have put here really works. It miraculously dissolves Stress that resides deep in the neurons, in those mysterious caves unknown to science, where our Consciousness resides. I have tried it for many years, and got rid of many burdens, among others, healed a 15 year long hearing problem and deep depression. The process is universal. It's known and applied by Buddhism, Christianity and (enlightened) Psychology alike. What I am doing here is trying to map it in a new, helpful way. It's a map, that I draw here, a map that, like many other maps, leads to the same goal.

Lets call this goal Deep Inner Peace and Well-being, for that's what it is.