Someone recently asked me to do a blog regarding the relationship of Discipline and Dharma. My family and I are just stepping out the door for a few days of rest, so please allow me to be brief and perhaps a tad playful with the following quote which is an old Alaskan saying:
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“The only things that go with the flow are dead fish.”
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It sometimes requires a great deal of discipline to do your dharma.
Never underestimate the value of sleep.
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During meditation retreats we like to say that sleep is king. By that I mean that it is good to get to sleep early so that you are fully rested for your daily meditations. If necessary, take a nap in the afternoon, so that you are fresh for your evening meditations.
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Remarkably, upon hearing “sleep is king,” some choose to sleep through their meditations. Oh my, how easily the knowledge is lost. If sleep comes during meditation do not resist it, but structure your life to make the most of your meditations.
The Fly Wheel effect exists transgradiently – on all levels of life. It refers to momentum, habit, and conditioning. The world-view into which you are born often stays with you for the rest of your life. The result of the Fly Wheel effect is like wearing a set of blinders, it narrows and limits your vision.
Personally, I needed a better reason than I happen to be born into a Christian home to dedicate my life to Christianity. People born in Muslim cultures are Muslim, in Hindu cultures are Hindus, in Buddhist cultures are Buddhists, and so on. This is the Fly Wheel effect at work. I needed a better reason.
In the short term the Fly Wheel effect is quite lively as well. For example, it is recommended that you change your fitness routine about every month. Due to the Fly Wheel effect, that is very difficult to do. In many ways, the most difficult routine you will ever do is the first day of a new routine.
As new understandings are revealed, a natural resistance rises up to oppose them. This too is the Fly Wheel effect. I recently heard a nice quote, “Whatever is innovative will be met with resistance.”
You would do well to look to your own life and identify the Fly Wheel effects that permeate it. Long, short, and intermediate term.
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What you long for lies beyond the Fly Wheel, yet it is veiled by the Fly Wheel.
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There are three realms to existence. The most superficial is the physical, the deepest is the transcendental, and the intermediate is the psychoenergetic. The psychoenergetic is what is commonly called energy or electromagnetic. The personality exists on that level. In fact, everything has a personified correlate on that level. The personified correlates make up what is called the astral realm. Even tension in the shoulder can be viewed as an astral quality, a negative being, a rakshasa, for example. Remarkably, the world can be interfaced with on that level, yet it is a dangerous path born of duality and polar opposites. It is the realm in which good carries within it the affirmation of its antithesis. It is a realm in which one can get lost for lifetimes. Yet it is a very real aspect of life. If one is capable of navigating those waters wisely, the astral realm can add meaning to life.
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What does it mean to navigate those waters wisely? It means to see beyond that realm, not just intellectually or emotionally, but also physiologically. To be awake to that level which dwells beyond the astral, beyond duality, beyond the field of polar opposites.
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When awake to that level, one knows that the transcendent, God, has no polar opposite. There is only the transcendent and lack of awareness of the transcendent. In that sense there is such a thing as absolute good (God), yet there is no such thing as absolute evil (D-evil). Evil is nothing more then lack of awareness of ones own true nature.
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Until the transcendent is perceived clearly (this is a state of physiology, not a perspective) notions of God are astral echoes of God. Echoes of truth perceived as truth hold truth at bay. Direct experiences of emotions regarding God fall far short of the direct experience of God. The path to God is one of humility.
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In its purist sense, everything is rooted in the transcendent. However, common practices of all of these things are astral echoes of that Truth. Thereby, they hold the practitioner in the clutches of the astral. Do you believe you can practice such things without loosing part of yourself to them? Perhaps you would do well to think again. The relative is sticky. Aspire to the highest.
Everything about the retreats is structured with intent. Meditation retreats are a time to quiet the fire of identity with the surface. During the day people bring their awareness to the absolute through meditation. In the evening we have a meeting.
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One purpose of the evening meeting is to enliven the subtle value of the transcendent by listening to Vedic chants. Another purpose goes unnoticed by many, but it is perhaps of even greater importance – disuse atrophy. After meditating all day, during the evening meetings, in waking state, without allowing the fire of identity to be fanned, the identity atrophies, softens, dissolves away through disuse. This is essential to the integration process. It is similar to taking a few minutes to come out of meditation before you come back into activity.
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Meditation is of little value if its effects are not integrated into daily life. Skipping evening meetings to fan the flame, ie., have dinner with friends, etc…, is like trying to fill up a bathtub with the drain open. It makes no sense.
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This is just one example of the subtly of the structuring of the retreats. You will do well to not second-guess the program, but to instead follow it along innocently.
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I hope to see you all at our next meditation event; Mother Divine, Oct. 8 – 17, 2010.
The Truth about Religion and Flatlining
