To begin this practice,
We assume a comfortable stationary position,
Which for this meditation would ideally be upright.
And then we spend a few moments exploring the different parts of our body to adjust them in a manner that would be conducive for the ensuing meditation,
Allowing ourselves to breathe naturally,
Not controlling the movements of the breath,
But rather simply allowing the body itself to choose the rhythm,
The volume,
And the pacing of our breathing process.
And with each exhalation,
Releasing all the different types of tension and all types of deliberate physical,
Verbal,
And mental activity,
Apart from being aware of the experiences that are coming up in the here and now,
Then generating a truly positive,
Vast,
Enlightened motivation for this practice,
Ideally directing it towards full awakening for the benefit of all sentient beings.
And then transitioning into the main part of this practice,
Which would include using our imagination in order to induce or gradually generate blissful feelings in our subtle physical or subtle nervous system,
Activating these feelings so that we can understand that we're not completely dependent on just the outer circumstances,
And also using the energy of this bliss to gradually come to insight with regards to the true nature of reality,
Using this bliss as fuel for that insight.
So to explore that,
We imagine that above the crown of our head is a beautiful,
Fresh lotus flower,
And the stem of that lotus flower connects to our very crown.
So there's a direct channel between the lotus flower and the upper part of our central energetic channel.
Upon the lotus flower itself,
We visualize a shining,
Radiant presence of the Buddha of Purity,
Vajrasattva,
With a shining white,
Snow-white body,
Sitting in the lotus posture,
Holding a Vajra scepter next to his heart,
Holding a bell next to his hip,
Smiling serenely,
Present there to assist us and all sentient beings in becoming fully awakened.
And for this practice,
We are inviting Vajrasattva's qualities,
Influence,
And energy to specifically purify our subtle nervous system,
To balance it,
To soothe it.
And we're doing it without using Vajrasattva's mantra this time,
Rather imagining that the concentrated form of his energy in his heart,
His Siddha syllable Hum,
Or simply a shining orb in his heart,
Starts to overflow with enlightening,
Blissful energy,
To such a degree that this energy starts flowing down his body in the form of blissful,
Radiant nectar.
And this nectar starts very gently and very slowly flowing through his body,
Then through the stem of the flower,
And then into our central energetic channel.
And although this is an endless and inexhaustible stream of nectar and blissful energy,
For the purposes of this meditation,
We are taking our time with imagining how it very slowly moves down our central channel and first reaches the point in the center of our head.
When it reaches that point,
It goes into all the secondary or branch channels,
All the energetic channels branching out from the central one into the major and intermediate directions,
Eventually branching out again and again.
So imagine,
Without going into too much detail,
That all the secondary and primary energetic channels in our body are being purified by this blissful nectar,
And that through this,
Blissful experiences are being slowly induced,
As if our subtle nervous system was slowly getting activated to experience the bliss of the true nature of reality.
We then imagine this blissful nectar flowing further down towards our throat,
And when it reaches our throat,
It starts branching out once again into the branch channels,
And then more and more branch channels,
Until the entirety of that part of our subtle nervous system is filled with this blissful,
Purifying energy.
And we're holding our attention right there,
In the center of our throat,
On the level of our throat.
This blissful nectar continues flowing down towards the area of our heart,
The heart center,
And from there,
From the center of our chest,
Where our central energetic channel would be,
Branching out,
Flowing into all the branch channels,
While we hold our awareness,
Our attention,
Our concentration right there,
With gentle curiosity,
Allowing our subtle nervous system to be filled with that gentle,
Spacious,
Easeful bliss.
And then it continues flowing down until it reaches the so-called navel center,
Or finger widths below the actual navel,
Still in the center of our body,
In the middle of our central channel.
And there,
Once again,
The flow of this energy or bliss,
This blissful nectar,
Continues as it streams,
As it flows into all the secondary or branch channels.
And while holding our awareness in this area and experiencing the blissful energy connecting all the different parts of our subtle nervous system,
We just rest,
We enjoy,
And yet we also maintain clear mindfulness of the feelings that we're experiencing right here.
But in this case,
These feelings are primarily pleasant ones.
Still breathing naturally and still just experiencing those feelings,
And the overall flow of energy all the way down from Vajrasattva to our navel center,
And into our every pore,
Connected by branch channels to the central channel.
And then,
Step by step,
We release different parts of this visualization,
Simply no longer keeping them in our mind,
Releasing the image of Vajrasattva,
Releasing the image of the flowing energy,
The different energy centers that we've gone through.
And eventually,
Simply being left with a spacious clarity and the afterglow of that pleasant experience which we might have felt in our body,
Or simply in our mind.
Resting there and recognizing how all of these experiences were induced by the luminous or creative force of our own mind.
And then,
To complete the practice,
Using this luminous creative power of our mind to dedicate the energy of this meditation,
Along with its purifying influence and all the insights,
Dedicating all of that to our highest aspirations,
The aspirations with which we began this practice.
And then,
Bringing our awareness to the space around us,
Introducing some movement to the body,
And inviting the bell.
