Attending To The Energy Centres - Radiance Sutras #7

Our loving life force flows between our chakras or energy centres continually. It nourishes, strengthens, and supports the processing of life's many experiences.  Meditation is an important tool in bringing greater awareness to this complex and sophisticated process. We contemplate whether the map of the chakras should be prescriptive or whether it provides more of a legend to help describe our energetic experience. Amongst this, we contemplate The Radiance Sutras Sutra #7

Transcript

So welcome to our Insinctive Meditation practice tonight, Which is a practice about attending to what we call the energy centres of the body, And in yoga speak, Yoga talkers, People might call them the chakras. And in amongst that, There's maybe a philosophy that is sort of bound in that the chakras have specific characteristics, That they're in specific places, That they do specific things, That they're like controlling our emotions and controlling our physical bodies, And that we need to look after our chakras and we perhaps need to do things with them. Like we need to maybe focus on our heart chakra and open our heart chakra up to have more love in the world, If we want to improve our ability to see what's going on in the spiritual eye, We have practices that we attend to that have us focusing here. Or if you want to connect with the universe, We try to open our crown chakra and things like that. Now that conversation is one that's been going on for millennia probably, You know. One of the things I think that we as people who are living in the world with lives that are busy and we have lots of things to do and lots of things to attend to, Is to look at these things as if they're not things that we actually need to do stuff to. But they are intrinsic in us and they and these energy centers are part of us that are part of our normal flow of life, That there are aspects of us which we can give some meaning to if we look at a map and say, Okay well when I'm feeling grounded, What's a map that I can use to say, Oh yeah I'm feeling grounded, Or one of the maps that I can use is a map of the chakras and say, Oh my root chakra is working well, I'm feeling nice and grounded, You know. Because someone's created a map that says, Root chakra, Be earthed and here's some ways to do it. You can stand on the earth and put your feet on the earth and you can do yoga poses that are there for your root chakra, You can do warrior so you can be grounded and things like that, Right. When we think about this map of the chakras from an instinctive meditation perspective, We look at a little different than that because that map can be somewhat prescriptive, Right. It can say, If you want to do this, Then you do this. If you want to connect with God then you practice opening up the crown chakra. If you want to be more in love you practice opening up your heart chakra. One of the ways that I look at it is that we attend to the sensations that we're feeling in places to let our awareness be told what's going on for us. It's more like, How do I tend to the energies flowing through me to have an understanding of maybe where I can have a little bit more attention sent. So one of the ways that I think of the chakras is that they're like places that conversations occur between my head, My spirit and the universe and there's different characteristics of that conversation that goes on, You know. If we look and say, Okay, Well, What are some of the characters that are in me? We have lots of different roles that we play. Well, Maybe there's different characters that are living in different parts of our energy body and they may be associated with different chakras, You know. Maybe there's certain needs that we have that we want to meet that are associated in the map with different chakras. But what we want to do is have our practices more of an inquiry rather than a prescription. Yep, So let's start with quite simply a very simple practice to start with, Which is just going to be taking an inhalation and let's all do this together if you feel to. Let's make sure that you're comfortable to start with. Taking an inhalation and just allowing yourself to have a sigh. It's as simple as that. Let's just have a sigh. And as you have a sigh, We might have a few. Just notice if there's any particular place in your body that you feel that that sigh creates a change in sensation. Notice as I sigh, Is there anywhere where I feel a change in sensation? It's a simple inquiry. Even wonder if there's a change in sensation that you notice in your body. Is there any thought or emotion that is associated with that change in sensation? Simply attending to what you're feeling in your body. Okay, So that's about a minute or so just attending to the sensations that you're feeling in your body just by having a sigh. So I'm wondering if anybody has wants to share if they had anywhere particular that they felt anything? Remember you won't be seen, But you might be heard. Really I felt like my heart and my heartbeat was faster. And my inhalations weren't too deep, Just kind of soft inhalations. But my heart was really fast and kind of heavy. I was going to ask how you are you in? How's your recovery going Jenny? I'm still coughing. Yeah, Okay. Yeah, Yeah, Yeah. Yeah. So you're feeling that in the heart there. So one of the first things we want to do is attend to sensations, Yeah, Sensations and changes in our body. Let's take that same practice again. Simply not putting any real effort into your inhalation, But allowing that sigh again. Noticing any sensations that occur. And then feeling into whether they're within you, Whether you have any emotional content with any that comes with any sensations that arises. Because there can be a link of sensation and emotion and the energy that's flowing in our body. And our inquiry is into, Does the sensation have a link to motion? Are we feeling in that sensation, A specific emotion around something in particular? And perhaps when we feel into an emotion that it brings a memory. We don't want to separate the sensations that we feel in our body from the emotions that we experience from our spiritual body. We want to look at and listen and feel as if they are all one. Just as I simply be with this gentle exhalation. I'm being with myself. I'm noticing sensations in my body. I'm recognizing any emotional content, Any emotional movement. We believe that there's a wisdom that is inside your own life force that is talking to you through these sensations and through the guidance of emotion. And we'll have another minute just sitting with that, Experiencing. It's just a gentle awareness of what's the emotional content in the sensations in my body. ARE YOUaps Had You Still Here? And again there's an invitation if there's something that's arisen for you, If you feel like you want to express it, That you're noticing sensations and out of that you can you can recognize that an emotion is arising. Maybe if you want to feel to share any of that then you can if not that's okay too. Feel like taking some notes, Maybe drop down some notes for yourself. If we take that a little further, Know that sensations can talk to us about emotions that are arising in us. One of the things about emotion is that quite often they're in response to our desires in life. That these emotions arise out of either the fulfillment of desires, Wonderful beautiful things that happen for us, Or the opposite of that, The city of that which is that there are desires in our life that aren't being met. And things that we crave they're not being given to us and they come up and we our emotions talk to us about it and the sensations that come up out of those desires that are not being met, Let us know that they're not happening. So I'll say we take another couple of minutes just with this very simple practice of noticing sensations, Maybe feeling into if there's any emotions that are talking and then the inquiry is, Is that out of a certain desire of life that is being fulfilled or is it out of desire of life that is not being fulfilled in my life. It's like we're diving deep into where are these coming from. We have basic desires in life, We want to have pleasure, We want to be connected, We want to feel like all our needs are being satisfied, We want to feel like we're doing things in the world that are worthy and are in tune with our path. So let's take it again have this dive into our experience of this breath, The simple exhale and flow through that acknowledgement of sensations, Wondering and feeling of emotions and then inquiring into what is the desire that is underneath the emotion that's what's being met or what's not being met. What's the joy, The wonder, The beauty that I'm feeling in the sensations or what's the difficulty, The terrors, The pain that I'm feeling. What's the desire that's underneath that? What is it that I want? What is it that my life wants? Now the sensations telling me that what I'm doing in life is in line with my path with my Dharma. Are the sensations in my body telling me that yes I'm experiencing the pleasure and the beauty in the world I'm enjoying living in the world. Are these sensations that are coming up out of our body through our energetic field telling me that I'm secure, I'm safe, I have everything I need or that although there's lack that I'm not yet feeling solid and secure in what my basic needs are. Or maybe there's these feelings that talking to us about how we feel about a sense of freedom in the world. Some sort of liberation from constriction. You Our sensations, Emotions, Our desires all linked talking to us through our body. You you Do you notice the sensations in your body just as you're aware of them that that you become aware of sensations in different parts of your body? Do you notice as you just tend to lead rest your attention on a particular sensation in a different part of your body is it associated with a different emotion or a different desire or different thoughts or different story that you can just be with. Maybe even a particular sensation in your body reminds you of a particular person. It's like these sensations provide a conduit for a conversation with yourself, With your emotions, With your desires but also with the world around you the world within which you move. The energy centers within us that talk to us through these sensations through this movement of energy. Like a conversation going on with between our soul and the world around us in the universe that we live in. And you might feel that your body wants to move with this energy this pulsing this conversation. There's no requirement for us to be still but we're acknowledging that this flow of energy through these energy centers is connecting with our body and it can speak the emotion maybe through movement as much as through conscious awareness of words. Perhaps the emotional content of a sensation is better expressed through movement than trying to formulate words to express them. That movement could be ever so subtle, Could be large and expansive or it could simply be a movement of your awareness with the flow of energy moving in and out of you towards your essence, Out in the conversation with whatever it is that you're in conversation with. It would have its own particular rhythm for whatever it is that you're experiencing. It may be fast and fluttering, It may be slow and smooth and soothing. Feeling a movement of energy that's associated with the sensation, Associated with the emotions, Associated with our desires and it's simply an inquiry. We don't have to do anything with our experience with, We don't have to create an understanding. We're being with and listening to our inner wisdom flowing through our experience. You And this life force that's flowing through us, This flow of energy, This flow of emotion, This flow of desires, May have a resonance to it, May have a song to it. I'll share with you one of the ratings, Sutra, Sutra 7 and then we'll just continue to soak in your experience of these sensations, Emotions, Desires, Conversations between yourself and the universe around you as it shows up in people, Places, Things. Let your attention glide through the centers of awareness along the spine with adoring intent. There's a song to each area of the body resonating in sweet vortices, Long rhythmic vowels and hums. Ah, Need, Ah, Hum. Our life force is resonating on and on, Our wisdom speaking to us through this movement of energy and emotion and soul. Find the harmonies emanating from the circulation of life energies. We can listen to these as sounds, More subtly as an underlying hum, But also as the subtle feelings, The harm of vibration, Of movement of energy. Then we can simply dive more deeply into these sensations, Into these feelings and dissolve. What we want to recognize is that none of these sensations, Emotions, Desires, Conversations that is happening out of this flow of energy, None of them happen just by themselves, That within us there's a whole lot going on. We all, As I said, We all have different roles, We have different desires we need to fulfill. We want to enjoy the pleasures of life, We want to have a stable environment, We want to feel that we're giving to the world in a way that's meaningful to us, We want to feel it's a freedom. And within us there is always a balancing act that's going on between all of these different desires, All these different things that we want to have, To create. What would be our ideal, Our balanced life? Sometimes they may feel like they're a conflicting forces within us, Being pulled in one direction, Pulled in another direction. Wanting to fulfill one desire here, Wanting to fulfill another somewhere else. In our meditation practice we can let these energies talk with each other, To work out what it is that suits the whole of our being the best. And if we were to think about this from a perspective of the chakras, The map, That though we might look at them as if there are specific places that they are that have specific tendencies, We can also think of them as if there is conversation going on between them within us. That there is a flow of energy from place to place within us. And Sutra 27 talks of this, Putting attention into the luminous connections between the centers of the body. These connections, Pathways of conversation between the centers, Between these centers of desires and instincts and particular energies. But there's conversations going on between them. Put attention into the luminous connections between the centers of the body where the mind loves to dissolve. From the base of the spine and the top of the head. The genitals and the heart, The heart and the throat, The throat and the forehead, The forehead and the crown of the skull. Enter this glowing net of light, This communication network between all parts of yourself. Enter that glowing net of light with attention born of all, With attention born of all. And even your bones will know enlightenment. Poured attention into the luminous connections between the centers of the body where the mind loves to dissolve. Base of the spine and top of the head, Genitals and heart, Heart and throat, Throat and forehead, Forehead and crown of the skull. Enter that glowing net of light with attention born of all. And even your bones will know enlightenment. You. . So by simply being with our breath for a moment and having a sigh we can feel into. I wonder if there's any sensations in my body that want to talk to me. . Is there any part of me that needs to be heard? Just in the breath or two we can make that inquiry. Does the sensation have any emotional content, Emotional context? Can that emotion be expressed through movement or even sound? Ahh, Oooh, Ee, Hmm. Is this emotion that I'm feeling, This movement of energy, The energy in motion, Is it talking to me of some desire that I have in life? We speak in our practice of four desires. That we can have sensual pleasure in life. That there's beauty in the world to be seen, To be perceived, To be tasted, To be touched. That we have a desire for our needs to be fulfilled, That our work will give us what we need so that we're not lacking. So that we can feed ourselves, We can put a roof over our head. We have the desire to do meaningful work that is in line with our essence, To follow our Dharma. And in amongst that for all of us there's some sense of a desire for liberation, A desire for freedom. To be free in life to express ourselves as ourselves, As our essence is calling. These are our four desires. And when we tune into our body, The sensations in our body, We can ask, Am I living my life in a way that is in line with my desires? Are they being fulfilled? Are the emotions that are coming through fulfillment or through squishing or squashing of my desires? And the inquiry is simply an inquiry. It's asking me this information, Just letting us know how we're going without any judgment, Without any making wrong. It's just recognizing, Recognizing what our body is telling us at this time, What our physical body, What our energetic body, What our subtle body, What our soul, What our spirit is calling for and how we're going. And we can feel how that conversation is going on between us and the environment that we're in, The people that we're in, The space that we're in, The earth that we live on. And it's a simple practice, It's simply an inquiry. If I take a little time to be with myself in the breath, Being with our breath is a simple way to do that. What sensations am I feeling? What's the emotion that may be associated with it? Is there a desire underneath that? And then this idea of this conversation between the different parts of ourselves that we have as humans, We have competing desires. We have them placed upon us and we have them within us ourselves. So perhaps there's a practice that you can take away with in that to play with for a week. So for those of you who are here with us now, We might close the recording for those of you who are listening later. I hope that you can then take that away and have some practice with it as well.