GOING DEEPLY INTO THE BODY

 

I can feel the energy inside my body, especially in my arms and legs,

but I don’t seem to be able to go more deeply, as you suggested

earlier.

Make it into a meditation. It needn’t take long. Ten to fifteen minutes

of clock time should be sufficient. Make sure first that there are no

external distractions such as telephones or people who are likely to

interrupt you. Sit on a chair, but don’t lean back. Keep the spine erect.

Doing so will help you to stay alert. Alternatively, choose your own

favorite position for meditation.

Make sure the body is relaxed. Close your eyes. Take a few deep

breaths. Feel yourself breathing into the lower abdomen, as it were.

Observe how it expands and contracts slightly with each in and out

breath. Then become aware of the entire inner energy field of the

body. Don’t think about it — feel it. By doing this, you reclaim

consciousness from the mind. If you find it helpful, use the “light”

visualization I described earlier.

When you can feel the inner body clearly as a single field of energy,

let go, if possible, of any visual image and focus exclusively on the

feeling. If you can, also drop any mental image you may still have of

the physical body. All that is left then is an all-encompassing sense of

presence or “beingness,” and the inner body is felt to be without a

boundary. Then take your attention even more deeply into that

feeling. Become one with it. Merge with the energy field, so that there

is no longer a perceived duality of the observer and the observed, of

you and your body. The distinction between inner and outer also

dissolves now, so there is no inner body anymore. By going deeply

into the body, you have transcended the body.

Stay in this realm of pure Being for as long as feels comfortable; then

become aware again of the physical body, your breathing and physical

senses, and open your eyes. Look at your surroundings for a few

minutes in a meditative way — that is, without labeling them mentally

— and continue to feel the inner body as you do so.

Having access to that formless realm is truly liberating. It frees you

from bondage to form and identification with form. It is life in its

undifferentiated state prior to its fragmentation into multiplicity. We

may call it the Unmanifested, the invisible Source of all things, the

Being within all beings. It is a realm of deep stillness and peace, but

also of joy and intense aliveness. Whenever you are present, you

become “transparent” to some extent to the light, the pure

consciousness that emanates from this Source. You also realize that

the light is not separate from who you are but constitutes your very

essence.