“Discernment is to see beyond the veils imposed by the senses; to see things as they are. Such capacity to see comes to those who operate from the deep centre within themselves. It implies detachment and freedom: detachment from impressions received from the world of the senses and freedom from personal desire.”
– Bede Griffiths. by way of the Vipassana.com newsletter
Can we use mundane desire for sensory pleasure to awaken?
There is no comparision with ANY sensory pleasure if you experience this samadhi concentration. It is greater than any sensory pleasure.”
— Ven. Chung Ohun Lee, Ph.D. at 16:38 in the YouTube video.
I’m studying at the Won Buddhism temple of San Francisco. I’m blessed for it to be right around the corner from my dwellings at 2379 18th Ave. My yoga center and my meditation center are right near each other!
And Ven Sung Ha Lee gave me the secret:
Keep the length of the inhale and the exhale the same length. Control the breath and you control the mind. First focus on the coccyx, then on the tailbone, then the area below the navel as you inhale and exhale the same length. Start with 2 seconds for the inhale/exhale. Then lengthen to 3 seconds and keep going. Soon you will get out to twenty. This is your gateway to samadhi.
There have been previous odes to sensory deprivation all filed in the inner sense category.
Now it is time for a quote from one of the true messengers of The Light (no time to go into what “The Light” is now). His name was Walter Russell and you owe it to yourself to read his works.
From “The Secret of Light”, there are numerous excellent references in the chapter “Unconsciousness, Sleep and Pain”:
We cannot be unconscious. We have always been conscious without the slightest awareness of it. Our confusion in this respect lies in mistaking sensation and thinking for consciousness. When we stop thinking, whether asleep or awake, we do not stop KNOWING, nor do we cease being consciously aware of our Being.
Conscious Mind does not sleep. Sleep is merely the negative half of the wave cycle of electrical awareness of sensation. Wakefulness is the positive half.
When the body is in balance, it has no sensation. When the body is unbalanced, sensation informs it when and where, otherwise it could not function.
All mystics describe their revelations as coming to them in flashes of great light. Paul, Buddha, Isaiah, Baha’u’llah and other mystics have vividly described this mental experience to such an extent that in the old days that experience was known as “The Illumination.”
That experience is, in reality, a severance of the cosmic seat of consciousness from the electric seat of sensation. The brain feels that severance electrically as a blinding flash. The consciousness, thus freed from sensation, suddenly becomes cosmically aware of cause instead of being hampered by the sensation of effect. That is what is meant by the biblical statement “And ye shall know all things.”
Inner Work: Using Dreams and Active Imagination for Personal Growth by Robert Johnson. Or my fav. Experiment in Depth by P.W. Martin which is a look at the “separation” from three perspectives. Jung for technique. Historian Arnold Toy…nbees assessment of its influence in history, and T.S. Eliots view from one who has accomplished the “withdrawal and return.”
On 2/25/2011 2:18 AM, Terrence Brannon wrote:
I continue to use the term ‘sensory deprivation’ even though Lilly made it clear that only certain people who had not done tank work themselves used this term.Technically, we are liberating ourselves from the distraction of physical senses. From ch.11 in “The Spiritual Notebook” (The Higher and Lower Powers) we read further confirmation of the power of Sensory “Deprivation”
“””
Consciousness is beyond the worlds of thought. It is the foundation of ECK, and the whole of ECK teachings. It is the explanation for the difference between the mental and Soul plane. It is the hardest dividing line to cross. … The secret of entering into the consciousness state is detaching one’s self from the outer, or sense world, and withdrawing one’s attention from all sensory objects. Then the chela begins to concentrate his attention on something inside. So far this is the general method of all systems. But the secret is that the mental world — which consists of the tools of thought — and every plane below it, comprise the negative worlds.
“””Hmm, so after separating physical from emotional and emotional from thought, we must also separate thought from consciousness. Arunachala Ramana of AHAM.com said the same thing: “the only spiritual practice is separating thought from awareness. Anything else is not worthy of the title of spiritual practice.”
“””
Consciousness is beyond the worlds of thought. It is the foundation of ECK, and the whole of ECK teachings. It is the explanation for the difference between the mental and Soul plane. It is the hardest dividing line to cross. … The secret of entering into the consciousness state is detaching one’s self from the outer, or sense world, and withdrawing one’s attention from all sensory objects. Then the chela begins to concentrate his attention on something inside. So far this is the general method of all systems. But the secret is that the mental world — which consists of the tools of thought — and every plane below it, comprise the negative worlds.
“””
Hmm, so after separating physical from emotional and emotional from thought, we must also separate thought from consciousness. Arunachala Ramana of AHAM.com said the same thing: “the only spiritual practice is separating thought from awareness. Anything else is not worthy of the title of spiritual practice.”
“… the inner universe cannot be realized unless we are able to separate Soul from mind and physical senses, and visualize Truth directly.”
later in the same chapter, Twitchell describes the 3 common states of deep sleep, dream, and waking. The he says:
“The next ascending step is the immortal state. Once we have taken this step we have consciousness of the higher planes where all things are subtle and Truth is the Ultimate Reality. At this stage the brain and the physical organs cease to operates … only by our spiritual senses do we function within these worlds.”
still later:
“The nine doors of the outer world are (list of orifices and sense organs… he omitted the skin)… all attention must be withdrawn from these lower doors and placed upon the spiritual eye.”
finally:
“When Soul passes through the spiritual window it enters into the astral world. We cannot see this world with physical eyes, but instead we view everything on this plane with astral senses. This is true of every higher plane we pass into.”
I tried focusing on the 3rd eye during my last float but I fell asleep. Maybe I should play HU in the float room to tune myself to the God worlds? Oh yeah, in ECKANKAR you need the help of the Living ECK Master to guide you to the Soul plane. You could only get to the mental plane by yourself – you would never cross the great void – http://santmat.livingcosmos.org
On this day, 12/29/10, I ordained into The Church of Ju-Jitsu Janissaries of Saturday Saints under Patron Saint Rebecca Romjin.
Sensory deprivation is a physical term – it admits that the physical senses are reduced. But let’s notice that worlds and awareness unfold with this deprivation. The metaphysical standpoint is: the ever alive inner sense is liberated when the outer senses are reduced, or as Glenn put it: when we subtract the body.
Let’s take a trip through the metaphysical writings for references to this alive inner sense.
In the Motions Universe, we have the beginning of real sensation as we know it now. … And as people became more attached to sensation, it became possible to control and confuse them by hitting them with waves of sensations. And so we have the individual much more at effect than he was previously.
— “Super Scio” 15. THE MOTION UNIVERSE ( http://www.freezoneamerica.org/pilot/sscio/index.html )
ANALYSIS: the creative spiritual being, Our Real Self, known as a “thetan” in Scientology, exists prior to sensation. The initial creative being existed as a nothing but over time created the ideas of motion and sensation. By reducing sensation, we naturally become more Our Real Self, prior to sensation.
Theravada Buddhism’s primary practice is satipatthana – observation of the rise and fall of body, feelings, mind and mental objects with equanimity.
ANALYSIS: Buddhist nirvana occurs when one no longer craves or rejects sensation. Quang Duc, a Buddhist monk, set himself on fire and remained perfectly still ( )
He was free and happy of the senses. A floater does not master his senses, but he does get away from them.
When a person leaves their body and views it from above, they do not feel the pain of that physical body. They have achieved sensory deprivation via a Near-Death experience. This obviously means there is a YOU who is ALIVE and watching the body and that YOU is eternally sensory deprived.
According to Max Heindel‘s Rosicrucian ( http://rosicrucian.com/ ) writings, called Western Wisdom Teachings, there are in the brain two small organs called the pituitary body and the pineal gland. This last gland is also called by medical science as “the atrophied third eye”; however, these teachings describe that none of them are atrophying: the pituitary body and the pineal gland at the present time are neither evolving nor degenerating, but are dormant. It is said that in the far past, when man was in touch with the inner worlds, these organs were his means of ingress thereto, and they will again serve that purpose at a later stage. According to this view, they were connected with the involuntary orsympathetic nervous system and to regain contact with the inner worlds (to reawaken the pituitary body and the pineal gland) it is necessary to establish the connection of the pineal gland and the pituitary body with the cerebrospinal nervous system. It is said that when that is accomplished, man will again possess the faculty of perception in the higher worlds (i.e. clairvoyance), but on a grander scale than it was in the distant past, because it will be in connection with the voluntary nervous system and therefore under the control of his will.
ANALYSIS: In “The Quiet Center” John Lilly said (paraphrase) “I think the yogis were right. I found that in isolation I could put my body anywhere I wanted in spacetime”
If only you could suddenly be unaware of all things, then you could pass into an oblivion of your own body… memory no longer functioned, nor understanding, nor the senses, nor the powers that should function so as to govern and grace the body…
In this way a man should flee his senses, turn his powers inward and sink into an oblivion of all things and himself.” ( http://tupamahu.blogspot.com/2010/03/meister-eckharts-concept-of-mystical.html )
ANALYSIS: “suddenly unaware of all things” is exactly what a tank gives you. The tank is a recipe for Eckhart’s Mystical Union with God.
The kernel of Teresa’s mystical thought throughout all her writings is the ascent of the soul in four stages… The fourth is the “devotion of ecstasy or rapture,” a passive state, in which the consciousness of being in the body disappears (2 Corinthians 12:2-3). Sense activity ceases; memory and imagination are also absorbed in God or intoxicated.
“
During the short time the union lasts, she is deprived of every feeling, and even if she would, she could not think of any single thing… She is utterly dead to the things of the world… The natural action of all her faculties [are suspended]. She neither sees, hears, nor understands.”
— William James quoting from St. Teresa of Avila, “Interior Castle”
( http://www.sacred-texts.com/chr/tic/index.htm )
ANALYSIS: I think this verse speaks loudly and clearly of the role of sensory deprivation (by whatever means necessary) for what she considers religious experience
4:16 For which cause we faint not; but though our outward man perish, yet the inward man is renewed day by day. 4:17 For our light affliction, which is but for a moment, worketh for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory; 4:18 While we look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen: for the things which are seen are temporal; but the things which are not seen are eternal.
Some unfortunately suppose that Christian Science leads us to ignore the body, but this is a mistaken view of its teaching and practise. The redemption of the human mind and body begins the moment that truth is accepted by one as a remedy for the ills which afflict mankind, and the work of the Christian Science practitioner is to lift thought above mortal sense, up to the true consciousness of man’s being as the likeness of God. It should not be forgotten that this lifts one above bodily consciousness into mental freedom and spiritual power, and the price paid for freedom is the surrender of material and sensual belief respecting man for the Christ-ideal of being and doing. Mrs. Eddy says, “Rightly understood, instead of possessing a sentient material form, man has a sensationless body” (Science and Health, p. 280). Sensation in the body implies a diseased tendency. Even on the human plane we are not conscious of heart, lungs, eye, or ear, unless mortal mind is offering a report of some discordant condition, and the remedy for this is to lift the discordant thought from the body, or, as the Master has bidden us, “Look up, and lift up your heads.”
ANALYSIS: there are numerous shortcuts to samadhi. You could practice ethical living all your life and maybe eventually get there. You could do physical asana for 10-15 years and get there. It certainly is not a rapid approach as I’ve done both bikram yoga and ashtanga yoga and I like them, but they do not lead to samadhi very quickly. Pranayama can do it in 4-6 weeks of diligent practice. I used to work with a person who left the Self-Realization Fellowship and I was able to get to some nice thoughtless states.
So now let’s get to pratyahara – withdrawal of the senses.
The yogic way to do this is called Sambhavi Mudra ( http://goo.gl/BzdVH ) … the tank is a pratyahara device automatically. So we move up to stage 5 of 8 just by climbing in. And I can vouch for the existence of John C. Lilly’s Quiet Center as being a real achievable thing just by laying in the tank.
In the Upanishads, a human being is likened to a city with ten gates. Nine gates (eyes, nostrils, ears, mouth, urethra, anus) lead outside to the sensory world. The third eye is the tenth gate and leads to inner realms housing myriad spaces of consciousness.
25. Now, it has elsewhere been said: ‘He who, with senses indrawn as in sleep, with thoughts perfectly pure as in slumber, being in the pit of senses yet not under their control, perceives Him who is called Om, a leader, brilliant, sleepless, ageless, deathless, sorrowless—he himself becomes called Om, a leader, brilliant, sleepless, ageless, deathless, sorrowless.’
“the more we know, the less we see” — Sade, Never as Good as the First Time
Our vanity convinces us that the machine is awake and supports this illusion with activity, sensation, and associative thought. — Human Biological Machine as a Transformational Apparatus.
More than one spiritual system pleads with the aspirant to flee the senses. I know it sounds prudish and I like my share of sex, drugs and rock and roll as much as the next person. But this article is focused on the automatic and lasting religious value of sensory deprivation – inner sense awakening.
In the Motions Universe, we have the beginning of real sensation as we know it now. … And as people became more attached to sensation, it became possible to control and confuse them by hitting them with waves of sensations. And so we have the individual much more at effect than he was previously.
— “Super Scio” 15. THE MOTION UNIVERSE
Theravada Buddhism’s primary practice is satipatthana – observation of body, feelings, mind and mental objects with equanimity. This might be better termed sensory deprivation
According to Max Heindel‘s Rosicrucian writings, called Western Wisdom Teachings, there are in the brain two small organs called the pituitary body and the pineal gland. This last gland is also called by medical science as “the atrophied third eye”; however, these teachings describe that none of them are atrophying: the pituitary body and the pineal gland at the present time are neither evolving nor degenerating, but are dormant. It is said that in the far past, when man was in touch with the inner worlds, these organs were his means of ingress thereto, and they will again serve that purpose at a later stage. According to this view, they were connected with the involuntary orsympathetic nervous system and to regain contact with the inner worlds (to reawaken the pituitary body and the pineal gland) it is necessary to establish the connection of the pineal gland and the pituitary body with the cerebrospinal nervous system. It is said that when that is accomplished, man will again possess the faculty of perception in the higher worlds (i.e. clairvoyance), but on a grander scale than it was in the distant past, because it will be in connection with the voluntary nervous system and therefore under the control of his will.
If only you could suddenly be unaware of all things, then you could pass into an oblivion of your own body… memory no longerfunctioned, nor understanding, nor the senses, nor the powers that should function so as to govern and grace the body… In thisway a man should flee his senses, turn his powers inward and sink into an oblivion of all things and himself.”
The kernel of Teresa’s mystical thought throughout all her writings is the ascent of the soul in four stages… The fourth is the “devotion of ecstasy or rapture,” a passive state, in which the consciousness of being in the body disappears (2 Corinthians 12:2-3). Sense activity ceases; memory and imagination are also absorbed in God or intoxicated.
“During the short time the union lasts, she is deprived of every feeling, and even if she would, she could not think of any singlething… She is utterly dead to the things of the world… The natural action of all her faculties [are suspended]. She neither sees,hears, nor understands.” William James quoting from St. Teresa of Avila, Interior Castle.
4:16 For which cause we faint not; but though our outward man perish, yet the inward man is renewed day by day. 4:17 For our light affliction, which is but for a moment, worketh for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory; 4:18 While we look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen: for the things which are seen are temporal; but the things which are not seen are eternal.
Some unfortunately suppose that Christian Science leads us to ignore the body, but this is a mistaken view of its teaching and practise. The redemption of the human mind and body begins the moment that truth is accepted by one as a remedy for the ills which afflict mankind, and the work of the Christian Science practitioner is to lift thought above mortal sense, up to the true consciousness of man’s being as the likeness of God. It should not be forgotten that this lifts one above bodily consciousness into mental freedom and spiritual power, and the price paid for freedom is the surrender of material and sensual belief respecting man for the Christ-ideal of being and doing. Mrs. Eddy says, “Rightly understood, instead of possessing a sentient material form, man has a sensationless body” (Science and Health, p. 280). Sensation in the body implies a diseased tendency. Even on the human plane we are not conscious of heart, lungs, eye, or ear, unless mortal mind is offering a report of some discordant condition, and the remedy for this is to lift the discordant thought from the body, or, as the Master has bidden us, “Look up, and lift up your heads.”
In the Upanishads, a human being is likened to a city with ten gates. Nine gates (eyes, nostrils, ears, mouth, urethra, anus) lead outside to the sensory world. The third eye is the tenth gate and leads to inner realms housing myriad spaces of consciousness.
25. Now, it has elsewhere been said: ‘He who, with senses indrawn as in sleep, with thoughts perfectly pure as in slumber, being in the pit of senses yet not under their control, perceives Him who is called Om, a leader, brilliant, sleepless, ageless, deathless, sorrowless—he himself becomes called Om, a leader, brilliant, sleepless, ageless, deathless, sorrowless.’ For thus has it been said:—
“the more we know, the less we see” — Sade, Never as Good as the First Time
Our vanity convinces us that the machine is awake and supports this illusion with activity, sensation, and associative thought. — Human Biological Machine as a Transformational Apparatus.
