Cheyenne Steele's Blog

Archive for December, 2008

The Mysteries Of AUM

Published by shirley on December 18, 2008 under Yoga

When the mind is totally empty, without any clamor of words, without even a ripple of thought, even then the sound of the void remains. The void also speaks; the void has its own sounds. Go and stand in a very secluded place where there is not a single sound and you will find that emptiness has its own music. Seclusion has its own kind of sound, and in this silence only the basic notes remain – a-u-m. When all words, all sounds are lost, these basic notes remain.

In the emptiness of the mental body the resonance of aum is captured. If the meditator makes use of this aum there can be two results. All planes have two possibilities. The repetition of aum can bring about a state of sleepiness, a state of sleepy trance, and this state can be brought about by repetition of any word. The modulated repetition of any word has the same impact on the mind as gentle strokes on the head that produces drowsiness and sleep.

 

If this state is brought about by repetition of aum you become lost in a world of dreams and imagery which is the natural potential. It will then be a hypnotic sleep in which you can see whatever you want to see. You can travel to heaven and to hell or have a vision of God, but all this will be in dreams. you can experience bliss, you can experience peace, but all in a dream; nothing will be real.

The usage of aum happens more often, because this is easy. To produce the sound of aum loudly and be lost in it is very easy and enjoyable like pleasant dreams. The quality of the mental plane, as given by nature, is that of imagination and dreams. If the mind wishes to dream it can dream; this enjoyment is possible for it. The other possibility is that of will-power and visions of the divine.

If aum is used only as repetition upon the mind, its impact brings hypnotic sleep. What is called yoga tandra is brought about by the repetition of aum. But if aum is pronounced with the witness well established within; if you are fully awake and are listening to the sound without drowning in it, without getting lost in it; if the sound is on one plane and you are standing on another as the listener, the observer, the witness; if you are fully awake to the sound – then only can work on the second possibility of the other planes begin. Then you will not go into yoga tantra, but into yoga jagriti, wakefulness.

I personally strive to keep people away from using mantras. The chances are ninety-nine out of a hundred that the person will go into an imaginary trance. And it can make it more difficult for the meditator to become successful later on. If one is used to creating a dream state within themselves and calling that meditation, then the nervous system begin to develop groves that his or her consciousness takes habitually, and this can be difficult to overcome.

The greater possibility with chanting and mantras is that your mind with its tendency to dream will at once, by its very mechanical process, fall into dreaming. But if you are fully awake and witnessing inside, observing the sound of aum without merging into it, without losing yourself in it, then you are practicing the mantra correctly.

 

Now, there are also some dangers to using aum as a mantra. Aum is a symbol of the last body, what some call the seventh body. On the last boundary line of words, where we leave all words, the last word heard will be aum. So aum is the last word in the realm of speech and the primal word in the realm of no-word. It is at the boundary line between the realm of words and the no-word state. So while using the sound of aum, the meaning should remain symbolic. It can be detrimental if one begins to take their sound of aum for the actual sound. One might believe they are hearing the deepest sound, when in fact they are not. The meditator might become confident that he or she has reached the highest plane. He or she takes this to be the journey’s end; thus, great harm is done on the psychic plane. the meditator then stops here.

Just remember: Aum is the purest sound. In fact, our tongues are unable to properly pronounce it. It is too pure to be uttered by the physical body. It is a word that begins where the tongue becomes meaningless, where the body becomes useless. Therein lies its resonance and this resonance vibrates on its own. It can be experienced; it cannot be created. Therefore, aum has to be experienced and not pronounced. So if you use aum as a technique be careful not to impose your own articulation upon it. Be the witness to the pure manifestation. Use the word aum to attune your body to the aum in reality. By continued practice the actual resonance will come. Then you will be able to hear the pure reverberation of aum.

Email This Post Email This Post

How Do We Experience Divine Union?

Published by shirley on December 18, 2008 under Tantra

The veil of our separate identity is removed when we experience the explosion at the sahasrar chakra and experience union with the divine.  The explotion of the divine union happens when two energies meet, the kundalini of the individual and the divine energy. Thus, the sleeping energy within the individual must rise up to the sahasrar, the crown, and then only is the union, the explosion, possible.  No union is possible except at the point of the sahasrar.  It is just as if your doors are closed and the sun is shining outside.  The light stays outside your door.  You move inside the house up to the door, but still you will not meet the light of the sun.  Only when the door opens do you come in contact with the sunlight. 

So the ultimate point of the kundalini is the sahasrar.  That is the door where grace awaits us.  The divine is always waiting at this door.  It is you who are not at the door; you are away within somewhere.  You have to come to the door.  There the union will take place, and that union will be in the form of an explosion.  It is called explosion because then you will immeditately disapear; you will no longer be.  In the happening you will be no more.  You will be lost; you will be broken and scattered; you will no longer be.  You will not be what you were behind the closed door.  All that was yours will be lost.  Only the one who waits outside the door will remain, and you will become a part, a part of the divine.  This cannot happen to you alone, by yourself.  For this explosion it is very necessary for you to reach up to the infiine cosmic energy.  The sleeping energy within has to be awakened and made to rise upwards to the sahasrar where the cosmic energy forever awaits.  The journey of the kundalini starts from your sleeping center and ends at the place, at the boundary, where you disappear. 

Your kundalini is your sleeping energy.  Its boundaries extend from the sex center to the center at the top of the head.  Rightly speaking, we have two boundaries.  One is the sex center and below this center the world of nature begins.  At the center of sex there is no difference between trees, birds, animals and ourself.  This center is the ultimate limit for them, whereas for man it is the first point, the starting line.  When we are based in the sex center we too are animals.  Our other limit is the intellect.  It is near our second boundary line beyond which is the divine.  Beyond this point we are no longer ourselves; then we are the divine.  These are our two frontier lines, and between these two our energy moves. 

Now, the reservoir where all our energy lies asleep is near the sex center.  That is why ninety-nine percent of man’s thoughts, dreams and activities are spend aorund this reservoir.  No matter how much culture may be displayed, whatever the false pretexts the society may bring out, man lives there and there alone.  He lives around the sex center.  If he earns money it is for sex; if he builds a house it is for sex; if he earns prestige he does so for sex.  At the root of it all we will find sex. 

It is interesting that between these two extremes you cannot rest anywhere, you cannot stop anywhere.  Many people find themselves in great difficulty as they have no desire for liberation, and if for some reason they become antagonistic towards sex they find themselves in a terrible predicatment.  They start staying away from the sex center, but they won’t go anywhere near the center for liberation.  They fall into doubt and uncertainty, and that is very difficult, very painful, and really a hell. Their lives are filled with inner turmoil. 

If the kundalini is at the lowest center a discharge of sexual energy is inevitable.  If it reaches the highest center explosion is certain. Both are explosions and both require the participation of the other.  In the discharge of sex the other is necessary, even if it is an imaginary other. But all your energy does not become scattered from here, because this is only the beginning point of your being.  You are much more than that, and you have progressed much from there.  The animal is fully satisfied at this point and therefore does not seek liberation.  In the realm of sex the presence of the other is required. If the other person is not present, even imagining the other produces the necessary effect. This is why is was thought that if God is present even in imagination, the explosion can take place.  If ejaculation is possible through the imagination, why cannot the energy explosion take place in the same way at the sahasrar?  Ejaculation is possible in imagination because it has actually been experienced; therefore it can be imagined.  But we have had no meeting with God, therefore He cannnot be imagined.  We can only imagine that which has been experienced by us. 

Explosion is not our experience; therefore, imagination does not work here.  We will actually have to go within and then the actual happening can take place.  So the sahasrar chakra is your ultimate boundary, where you end. 

We can experience this wonderful experience of sex.  Those who go deep into the expereince feel a flowering,  but it is a very fleeting experience.  Something within blossoms, but it closes again almost immeditately.  This is the difference between the two experiences.  In the sex experience the energy moves downwards; whereas in samadhi the energy moves upwards.   When we are unaware, the energy moves downwards.  Yet, when aware, the energy begins to ascend upwards towards the sahasrar.  

Thus, both these things are required.  You will travel up to the sahasrar and there someone is always awaiting you.  It is not correct to say that someone will come there when you reach; that someone is already there waiting for the happening to take place in you.   The bliss of sexuality pales as a candle to sun when compared to the bliss of union with the divine. 

So with all our efforts and work with the sexual energy, it’s purpose is to raise this energy with awareness till the body can no longer contain who we are, until we enter a union with the divine in what some call a cosmic orgasm, an explosion, liberation, divine union.

Email This Post Email This Post