Comment to Search for Self
  • Arpana gave these statements which I comment about below:

     

    Regarding focus between the eyebrows: As per my experience it should only be done if there are no thoughts and images in the frontal part of the subtle head and when the subtle body shifts to a higher level due to breath infusion.

     

    So by the above procedure one can easily locate the coreSelf, analytical orb and Kundalini even though one may not be able to locate the sensual orbs, sense-of-identity and location of memory easily.

     

    Mi~Beloved’s Remark:

    In this life I was introduced to the focus between the eyebrows by Arthur Beverford, who is deceased and who I see frequently now on the astral level at least once per week.

    He rendered it as he was taught by Rishi Singh Gherwal. The process shown by Beverford was to do a series of asana postures with deliberate breathing. Then to do some alternate breathing (anuloma/viloma pranayama). Then to meditate. Just before the meditation, he instructed that some peppermint/camphor oil (White Flower Embrocation) be rubbed between the eyebrows. This gave a cooling feeling which made it easier to focus there.

    The idea was to open the third eye. Did it work? It hardly worked. It only worked now and again but there was faith in the instruction. That kept a student doing it. Thoughts were ignored at best but it was not considered a failure if thoughts were impulsively constructed and the yogi just could not curtail or cease them.

    A student should know that this method was mentioned in the Bhagavad Gita. It is a traditional method because the third eye is located there. It opens there regularly for some yogis.

    For me at the time when Beverford introduced this which was around 1970, my third eye opened on a daily basis even without doing the practice. Hence with the practice that was reinforced further. Later however after about ten to fifteen years I noticed that the frequency of third eye opening decreased. I traced this to interest in sexual activities with corresponding responsibilities which ensued. Some other psychic functions did not decrease and the reduction of third eye opening did not squash psychic insight and some other important functions of the subtle body.

    There are instructions about exactly where to focus because when reading the Sanskrit one is at a loss to determine exactly where to focus. This is settled concisely if one has an experience of the third eye opening but there is some instruction too about focusing at the tip of the nose. What tip? Where? At the top of the nose?

    I was told by an ancient rishi, Upamanyu, that the place is the top part of the nose where the nose enters the face near the center of the eyebrows. He gave that as the definite location of where to focus. However, the third eye opens where Beverford indicated which is smack center between the eyebrows. It does however move up or down on occasion.

    I concur here that when a student is told to meditate focusing there, he/she should be briefed on the following:

    • wait to meditate there only when there are no thoughts or images. Otherwise one runs the risk of causing increase of the thoughts and images. When you sit to meditation first determine the state of mind as to if the mind is free of thoughts and images. If it is not then do something to stop it. Once you achieve that you can focus between the eyebrows or do whatever practice you desire.
    • The focus between the eyebrows should be without much pressure. If possible, like touching something with a feather, as compared to hitting something with a hammer. However, one may not do this initially but should work in meditation to achieve this light touch to the center of the eyebrows.

    ~~~~~~~

    • The first step is to locate the intellect. Once that is achieved the yogi/yogini should use that success to locate the coreSelf. This is because the coreSelf and the intellect are like a man and wife. If you can locate one you will surely if you are patient find the other. In fact, in the story of Puranjan in Canto 4 of Srimad Bhagavatam, Narad gave the coreSelf as a king without a queen or kingdom and the intellect as a queen in a kingdom without a king.

      According to Narad when these two met, it was love at first sight. They lived together in the city of Bhogavati, the place for excitement, the physical body. This means that there is an intimacy between the coreSelf and the intellect with the sense of identity being so fused into the core, that these two act as one reality.

      A yogi must study this intimacy and see if he can bring about a divorce. According to Patanjali they have to split up. No divorce is nice. This one is especially traumatic. Sir Paul Castagna once told me that he hated to have to do it. His view initially was that the self is one cohesive whole something and it should not be split into parts. But that only means that we prefer to have a functional car, then to have several parts like engine parts, transmission parts and then have to put that together and make it work.

      Most people feel that the self is one thing or it is nothing. But in that usage self means the psyche according to inSelf Yoga and it is one whole container for several psychic objects.

      ~~~~~~~

      The kundalini is best discovered by doing kundalini yoga, where it is aroused through the spine into the head but unfortunately most people have access to nature’s easy process of knowing kundalini but they are unable to observing it by that method which is sexual expression.

      Kundalini yoga causes kundalini’s arousal through the spine but kundalini is also aroused naturally with little effort and without breath infusion and yoga postures through the sexual organ.

      It is the same kundalini which is involved in both arousal through the spine and arousal through the genitals. This kundalini should be studied in detail. A yogi should also know the relationship between the kundalini and the intellect as well as the kundalini and the coreSelf (inclusive of sense of identity). Whatever that relationship is should be adjusted for the acceleration of yoga practice.

      In most spiritual sects this is ignored and is considered to be of little or no consequence. This is just fine because each of the process have varying objectives which stress or neglect certain methods.

      ~~~~~~~

      The study of the memory is necessary. It is listed as one of the undesirable vrittis compulsive operations of the mind. I suggest that this study begin with location of the intellect and then tracking to see where the memory comes from before they hit the intellect. However, there are two memories to consider. One is immediate recent memory. These are easy to track because they are located in or on the surface of the intellect, so that if you located the intellect you already located these. However, the other memories travel from somewhere and then hit the intellect after which one can see that the intellect is activated with thought-idea-image constructions to illustrated such memories and also to make the coreSelf become occupied with the ideas.

      A yogi must patiently in meditation wait and look to see where the long-range memories come from. My report is that they are located in the chest area. They travel through the neck and then hit the intellect which feels compelled to illustrate them further. The intellect in turn, compels the core to be attentive to the resulting display.

      Modern meditators are mostly unconcerned with this. They are instructed to observe thoughts with detachment and not to give any attention to thoughts. But that process provides no clarification about the location of the memories which are stored in the psyche from this or from previous lives. It does not show if there is an intimate relationship between the intellect and the memories. It does not reveal if there is a conspiracy against the core by the adjuncts. It does not reveal if in its present stage the core is a weakling who just cannot overcome the influences of the adjuncts.

      If someone finds that the memories are located somewhere other than where I stated they are, that is approved because in medical science there were cases of surgeons finding specific organs in odd places in the bodies of certain humans. There are general locations which tally with most humans but sometimes a child is born with the heart leaning to the right or some organ in a place never seen before. The important thing is to locate it.

      ~~~~~~~

       

      • The sensual orbs are no easy to perceive but one should understand that these are produced by the kundalini even though they are controlled in part by the intellect. Sometimes they report directly to the intellect before they render information to the kundalini, which is their source.

        The way to trace them initially is to trace their signal inputs to the intellect or the kundalini. To understand how to approach this, consider what it would be like for a leaf to give information to a tree about which direction a branch should grow in. The leaf is like a sensual orb which gathers information from the environment. It sends that information through sensitive cells in the branch which the leaf is attached to. This information travels down into the tree.

        Once informed the tree grows the branch in a certain direction where it figures it will acquire more sunlight. If you are located as a cell somewhere in the stem of the plant how would you perceive the cells in the leaf and their sensing ability. This is like what you must do to begin research of the sensual orbs.

        • Tremendous contributions gotten from Arpana's remarks.

          Thank you greatly for the detailed and meticulous revisits!