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My take on what is going on here with these practices

by Chuck Kasmire

I have included this section so that you may have a sense of where I am coming from in presenting these practices. It is also useful to know those who have influenced my views.

In the meditation community we generally recognize higher realms of mind that with practice become available to us. I will use the term super-conscient for these (a term used by Sri Aurobindo). Meditation often revolves around accessing or cultivating these realms. Then we have this body. For many people – the experience of the body outside of some aches and pains is non-existent – numbness from the neck down. But in the body resides a whole other realm that sits below our normal waking consciousness – the sub-conscient (again using Aurobindos term). Our normal waking consciousness sits in a sense between these two.

Now, here is the thing: finding out who we really are cannot be done through the super-conscient – this is just part of the story - the totality of our experience is found by diving in to the body and opening to all that is there. The sub-conscient may be viewed as everything you have repressed or recoiled from going back forever pretty much. Lots of stuff. In fact – think of it as the entire universe. It is here that we have pulled back and cut ourselves off from our true existence. Energy work is designed to work with the sub-conscient, to peel away and give presence to these things layer by layer and to do so in a step by step fashion that makes them easier (but not always pleasant) to work with compared to when they are released haphazardly (think Dark Night). Body work isn't something to be cut through but rather something to be fully taken in and digested. Every one of us is unique and each journey is unique.

If you want to dive more deeply into these things, I recommend two books:

  • Touching Enlightenment – Finding Realization in the Body by Reginald Ray
  • A Greater Psychology – An Introduction to the Psychological Thought of Sri Aurobindo by A. S. Dalal (lots of maps and models).
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