Arose this Saturday morning, and felt disconnected…
Realized, I have not been formally meditating recently. Have not been getting up to sit on the
cushion at 2 or 3 am.
Well, getting up to pee.
But, then being too lazy and going back to sleep.
I have excuses…
Stayed up too late watching a movie.
Have to get up too early to go to work…
Took a moment to feel this deeply…
Brought my consciousness down from my head into the Tanden,
aka, Hara, Dantian, located 2 finger breaths below the navel, and in the center
of the body.
Breathing into this area.
Feeling deeply the connection to the whole shebang.
Or, as Jon Kabat-Zinn says, “The whole catastrophe.”
What is this connection?
How does it get lost?
Deep meditation reminds me that I am not only an individual,
a “particle.”
Like the photon, I am both particle and wave.
The “wave” part is the connection to the whole shebang…
The Universe, Cosmos, G-d, Source, Everything-That-Is and
Everything-That-Is-Not…
That we are pure potential…
Not only part of everything, we are Everything…
Not in any narcissistic form…
This “being alive” is created just for us as an individual,
but also just for everyone else, and everything else… (as if there is really anything… Else…)
So, when life kicks you in the backside…
Listen carefully…
There is important information being given…
Gifts. Not often
correctly recognized. Often, not
correctly interpreted, nor properly acted upon…
(See, Rumi, “The Guest House”)
Particle and Wave…
Metaphors… At the heart of the
matter we can only speculate about any Truth to any definitions...
This is the realm of “The Space Between.”
As an intro, you may want to skim my last blog entitled
“Soul.”
Today we will define this Space as between the
“body-mind-emotion,” that place that science feels it explains fairly well, and
Source, that concept, or non-concept, that science denies.
Actually, most of science denies anything other than matter,
body, and brain.
Zen teachers tell you to ignore this Space. Everything is an illusion.
You can see things, get information, talk to the dead in
this space. The Zen way is to let
everything go…
Shamanic practitioners teach that this Space is as real as
anything.
That is the Space to get
information and to heal, defined as the Lower and Upper worlds.
The “regular world” is the Middle world
(suggested reading is everything by Michael Harner).
Frances Vaughn nicely outlines the various ways different
religions and practices conceptualize this Space. I won’t try to improve on her writings. If you are interested, read her book,
“Shadows of the Sacred,” 1995.
I am more interested in the broad strokes of this
Space.
My own explorations have shown that this Space can be
useful. You can get information about
anything you search for.
Different, but much more powerful, than Google.
It can be as small or as large as you wish. You can ignore it. Or, try to…
However, if you resist a call from it, it will knock harder
the next time, until you heed its call.
What you resist, persists…
That is your unconscious, or one of the various varieties of
the unconscious…
This is the Space of creativity.
When you read, the regular world may disappear, and if you
are lost in this new world… that is this
Space…
When you are writing, and you don’t know where the words
come from… that is this Space…
Dreams arise in this Space…
learn to listen to them… they are
given to you as a gift for your continued growth…
(see, Jeremy Taylor, “Where People Fly and Water Runs
Uphill.”)
When you are in deep dreamless sleep, then “you” are resting
in Source.
When you are meditating, and even the witness disappears,
“you” are Source.
Technically speaking there is only Source.
There is really no “you.”
But, the illusion of you as a “particle,” a
separate individual, disappears completely…
What a wonderful gift…
The Space Between…
Can be anything you need it to be!
Compressed into Nothingness, Expanded to Infinity…
Most of this blog concerns methods to help develop the use
of this Space, see here for my brief summary:
I’ll add one more personal note on my daily morning physical
practice, grounding me for the day.
My father said he did 30 minutes of exercise every morning,
I never saw them, as I was never up early enough. But, whatever he did, he lived to 103!
After brushing, flossing, washing my face… Back in the
bedroom, at the foot of my bed, on carpet, I do 5 to 20 minutes of exercise,
depending on how rushed I am…
The minimum is spinning arms around, 10-30 push-ups, 30-40
sit-ups, stretching out legs backwards and forwards, standing on my head 10-20
breaths, I’ll add various core exercises and twists as I have time. I leave the most important practice to the
end:
On my back, arms stretched 45 degrees above my head, legs
flat, I start to rock my hips, then faster, it rocks my shoulders, the legs and
arms move passively. The arms and legs
then rise up, like a bug on its back.
The arms and legs first move with the motion of the hips and
shoulders. Finally, I shake my arms and
legs as fast as possible, until I am tired.
I then lower my arms and legs to the ground, and feel the buzzing
traveling from my arms into my body (some would label this sensation as “energy,”
Chi). I lay there until the buzzing
subsides. I then get up and get
breakfast to start my day.
A note, my wife adds vocalization to this shaking. Then again, she is an extrovert…
I’ve written previously about my meditation, and other
exercise, and practices.
These are only suggestions.
What may work for me, may not work for you…
Read widely, if you like…
Practice whatever methods resonate within…
Most importantly, use your creativity! Create your own path…
Make good use of The
Space Between…
Namaste
But if you don’t schedule in the big things, your life with
filled be all the less important things, gravel and sand. 
Resulting in our lives feeling like driving over shaky washboard
roads. 
