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Title: Life In-Between the Spaces
Category: sat nam
Blog Entry: OM Shanti I never ask people to believe what I say. In fact, I recommend you don't, because I may be wrong, or at least wrong for you. Take a look and listen only if you feel so inclined, and then, and only then, evaluate and experiment in the ways you are competent with. Use the tools you have available to you. Then make up your own mind. That is the preferred way. Zen, Tantra, Jnana, other yogas and generally most inward-looking paths came about because of a change in the direction of the flow of investigative consciousness inherent in us all. Instead of looking for answers out there (in the world and with the mind), you look into the Self in here (away from the world and eventually without the mind). The natural direction of the mind is outwards. Inward-looking paths turning the mind on itself change this direction 180 degrees back onto the Self. So the ideas and concepts are a little different than what the normally outward-looking individuals are used to. In fact, these ideas can seem the exact opposite, and in some ways they are. So it can be very confusing, frustrating, and initially make outward-looking people feel insecure and scared. Yet that is the echoing advice that comes to us so incessantly in one form or another throughout our lives - to somehow know or get to know your Self. For instance, in the Bible it is said that you must give up your life in order to live. Here is the quote from Matthew 10:39 (Amplified Bible): "Whoever finds his [[a]lower] life will lose it [the higher life], and whoever loses his [lower] life on My account will find it [the higher life]." So the outward-looking to inward-looking turn can feel very much like losing ones (established, accustomed) life. You can figure for yourself which life to you is higher and which is lower in this quote – you sort of have to if you are in doubt about the path to choose. Which brings me to the idea of "Life Between The Spaces". Once again Zen is helpful here; it is not the frame of the door so much as it is the framed space that has great value. From the vantage of Tantra, the moment of change is much more significant than what is changed from or to. Tantrics pay much closer attention to these changes rather than the before and after of it. A fine example of pause before and after is that of your breath. It is not the inward or outward breath that is as important as the spaces in-between them that needs attention, because there,for a moment in time, is a suspension of breath which is deeply significant and really cool to watch. Kriya Yoga takes it even further with the slogan of "breathlessness is deathlessness". The statement, from an outward-looking perspective, is impossible to process. No breath, no life. Period. Even the inward-looking people can become confused. But consider the line from the Kena Upanishad: "That which is not breathed by the breath, but that by which the breath breathes: know that to be God, not what people here adore." Breath is just one example of a significant change we should be more aware of when studying the Self in an inward-looking manner, but there are many other changes both evident and not so evident, obvious and not so obvious. The change from one season to another is truly only a miniscule part of a second. So are the solstices. Day turns into night at a very particular instant, and from asleep to awake for us is a matter of mere seconds. Most of these changes are not all that frequent and we really don't think of them much or tune into their times of change a such, but two of these changing things are very common and very near us, and they present us with some of the greatest opportunities to attempt to lay hold of the Now, which is where the Self resides. The first one is the breath. We breathe 21,600 times a day, so it seems we could set aside a few of them to look at what this breath looks and feels like when it comes to the little suspensions or pauses in-between the inward and outward breaths. The first thing you'll notice there is the silence. Mind is primarily fueled by breath, and when the breath is suspended or slowed down, the mind is slowed accordingly even though it may not seem like that to us at first. The other really cool feeling is the immediacy of that period of pause, as though you are closer to the Now, and the thing is, you are. Play with it a little. I think you'll be amazed. Just imagine if we could tap into those little seconds of Now 21,600 times a day - how familiar we could have become with it! So it seems a pity that we have to creep up on the Now like this since it is always available to us, if only we could let go of our obsessions with the past and the future – or with the before and after, rather than the in-between - or as in the case of our breath, the pauses in-between our in and out breaths. The other opportunity available to us, albeit 21,600 times less frequent, is our first waking moments when sleep changes back into the waking state. It is only a few seconds, but it is extremely valuable if we pay attention to it and use it properly. You probably notice within seconds of waking the first thoughts entering – what time is it? What day is it? What are my duties for today? What issues remain from last night or yesterday that I have to take care of today? Thoughts come seemingly from the outside into you. Slow at first, then speeding up into the myriad within a very short time. A great practice is for you to go to the world at that time instead of it coming in to flood you. You change the direction in a manner of speaking. Thoughts do not flood into you – you go out to meet the world. It a matter of who is in charge here - you or your world. It's not easy to get right, but with practice it gets to work quite well. Make your last thoughts before sleep some reminder that when you wake up, you will, at least for a minute or so, not move at all and just watch the thoughts come in. Do this for a few days and then try to go out to meet the world, (all of which happens in these first few seconds after waking), which will be much more by your own proactive choice than by numb reaction. Remember that what lies in-between all returning change – the seasons, the solstices, the days, your waking moments, and at the top and bottom turns of your every breath, is the Now. By noticing these auspicious in-between moments we can catch glimpses of the Now and get an idea of Self in there, and perhaps even a little deja vous of the old "at home" feeling, a memory of who You are perhaps... Check it out. If nothing else it is quite a bit of fun. Besides, what harm could it do? Namaste.