ATMA SPURANA
ABOUT THE TECHNIQUE
This is a technique to be aware of ourselves every moment, in every action. Originally from the Vijnana Bhairava Tantra, this was the technique made popular by the great master Gurdjieff in the West.
INSTRUCTIONS
All you have to do is remember yourself, remember I am - when you are eating, drinking, walking, talking. Be aware that you are, discover within yourself an ever-living current.
Don't imagine it is simple. We cannot maintain our awareness on ourselves for more than a few seconds. Then we forget. You think you are remembering, but your mind has already jumped to a new thought!
Self-remembering is NOT thinking; it is simply awareness. If you think, I am, you have missed the point. That is what we usually end up doing – repeating the words*, I am, I am. The words are not the experience. Don't verbalize. Just feel, I am.* Don't think about it.
When you are walking, stop for a moment and be aware that you are. Carry this awareness. Be aware that you are experiencing the sun on your face, the wind in your hair. Be aware of the one who is experiencing. Just feel, I am. For a moment, you will be thrown back into yourself! You get a glimpse of deep silence, of reality. This simply cannot be explained in words, you have to experience it.
When you touch something, just feel the touch. When someone touches you, feel the touch, feel the one who is being touched. Your consciousness becomes still sharper.
Retain this awareness at all times. This is an anytime-anywhere meditation. In fact, make it an all-the-time meditation!
CHITAAKAASHA DHYANA
ABOUT THE MEDITATION
Meditation on the sky is meditation on emptiness. The clear blue sky is intensely empty. To meditate on it is to enter into clarity.
INSTRUCTIONS
Choose a day when the sky is clear blue, cloudless and vast. In a
quiet place, simply lie on your back and start looking at the sky.
Don't blink – even if your eyes begin to water. Just keep staring. Your eyes will begin to hurt; ignore the pain. Once the tears have cleansed your eyes, it will become easier to stare.
Don't start thinking about the sky! Don't start thinking about how wonderful and blue the sky is looking. The moment you start thinking about it, you separate yourself from the sky. Your job is not to think about the sky, but simply to enter into the sky.
Just by looking, feel the clarity of the sky. Be aware of the purity of the blue sky. Enter into that clarity. Move deep into the sky. Go on looking deeper and deeper into the sky, as if you are looking for something further and further in its depth.
Keep on staring till you become one with it. Not till you think you have become one with it! When you have become one with it, you will know for yourself. It may take an hour or more. Don't stop, don't let your attention wander. Don't take your eyes off the sky.
Now close your eyes. If the union has really happened, you will feel the sky inside yourself. You will feel that the sky has entered you! Your mind would drop, your thoughts would drop away. Remain in that sky.
In the beginning, it will be only for a few moments. But with practice, you will experience this state for longer and longer periods. With the clear sky within you, you will experience no-mind.
HRIDAYA KAMALA