Re: [tsk] An adaptation of the Giant Body exercise series from the first TSK
book: Keith Dowman re Longchenpa's Treasury of Natural Perfection (Ati
Dzogchen): Steve Randall: Rich Murray 2009.05.11

Hello all,

I took TSK classes at Nyingma Institute in fall, 1983.

On May 2, 3, and 6, I was profoundly delighted by Lama Wangdor Rimpoche and
his translator Lama Lena, from Rewalsar, Himalchal Pradesh, India, in a
class of over three dozen near Santa Fe, New Mexico, who read from Keith
Dowman's vigorous translation of The Flight of the Garuda -- my first
exposure to Ati-Dzogchen.

Here is a comment by Dowman on page 89 in his fine translation of
Longchenpa's Old Man Basking in the Sun: Treasury of Natural Perfection:

Acknowledgment, or recognition, of thoughts and emotions in the very moment
of their occurrence potentiates them, and having reached their fullness they
dissolve of their own accord, leaving no trace.
Recognition occurs at the 'junction' of an appearance with mind.
Recognition exhausts its potency (as in psycho-analysis?).
In this way appearances are assimilated to their absence in pure being.

The door to the sublime mystery of gnosis has three keys.
The first is the key of detachment from dualistic experience by holding
attention at the coincidence of the mind and its object, at their 'point of
union'.
The second key is the indeterminate space of pristine awareness where all
experience (thoughts, emotions, sense impressions) is left without trace
like a bird's flight-path in the sky.
The third is the key of the unitary or holistic spaciousness of being where
every movement, occurrence or stirring is just another wave in the ocean
(see also canto 50).

The all-inclusive, total non-focus has three key points: recognition,
actualisation of potency, and automatic dissolution.

The notion of linear time dissolved in reflexive release, all and everything
is assimilated to the unbounded gnostic matrix: Canto 27. Assimilation to
the Immense Gnosis of the Super-Matrix.


the Immense Gnosis of the Super-Matrix = Great Space.


For decades, I've had remarkable results helping people to simply notice
acceptingly all the actual body sensations available moment by moment:

6. ABIDING IN THE BODY: "At this point, I want to share a very
powerful and simple way for grounding and deepening our process
together, and working with whatever comes up. It is simply to tune in
on and describe the actual sensations in the body this very moment.
"For instance, I am aware of my clothing touching my skin all
over, the pressure of sitting, the sensation of breathing air in and
out, saliva in my mouth, some tension in the back of my neck,
an itch on my back, the steady beat of my pulse. Now, I find myself
straightening my posture a little, and that feels better.
"The idea is to fully notice and accept whatever is available in
the body as perceptions, sensations, and feelings, without trying to
explain or control anything. Notice in every part the actual
sensations, tensions, pains, or vibrations that are present right now,
and describe as much as is comfortable the actual details.
"It is the very ordinary and mundane sensations that are
significant. You may be surprised to notice a lot more going on than
you usually take time to feel."

"If there is any pain or discomfort or strong sensation, focus
gently and openly into the very center of it, and let yourself explore
whatever is actually there.
Don't bother with explaining what you feel.
Just stay focused on what you actually sense right now. Let any
feelings and energies develop and move in their own way.
"You'll find that simple awareness itself will help any stuck
areas to spontaneously release and readjust. This'll help you
automatically escape from confusion into an available clarity. I find
that one of the most powerful things I can do to help is to ask the
person to notice and describe their actual sensations right now."

"Notice how you experience breathing right now, the
sensation of air going in and out. Notice any resistance or limitation
in the breathing. See if you can allow the breathing to slow down a
bit and become deeper and easier.
"Let the breath move down deep into the belly. Let the chest
expand easily. If there are any tense or painful places, let the flow
of breath somehow connect into those places right now.
"Let the breathing just happen by itself each time. Each
breath is a new journey."

"Notice what you sense now in your feet and legs. Now, in
the belly. In the chest. Arms and hands. Neck and throat. Face,
mouth, nose, ears, eyes, head."
Simply sensing body sensations is a powerful remedy. It is
grounding. One is automatically brought out of whirls of thought into
simple presence. The next step becomes obvious. Quite often, just
abiding with the sensation of a negative emotion for a few minutes is
enough to resolve it, leading to insight and peace.
So, instead of probing why the partner is angry, the guide
says, "Tell me exactly how you experience this anger right now as
sensations in your body. Let these sensations change and move in
their own way."

"What is the most prominent sensation in your body right
now? OK, focus gently into the very center of it. Give up fighting,
resisting, or controlling it. Let it be in its own way.
How big is it? How intense is it?
What shape might it have? What color?
"Let it have a voice, and let it speak right now. What do you
have to say to it?
"Take a posture that expresses the sensation. Now,
exaggerate the posture. Now, relax the posture. What major
sensations are you aware of right now?"

7. EMOTIONAL EXPLORATIONS: Intense communion allows
strong emotional issues to emerge. In fact, an unresolved emotional
issue is often first encountered as an experienced block in the
communion process. Things just feel stuck. The flow is limited, or
frozen. Not much energy is available. Scanning the body is likely
bring up issues to work on. These issues almost always involve a
relationship with another person.

"Is there someone in your life that you're having or had some
difficulties with? Your parent? What is his first name? Let's try
working with this right here and now. I'll be him. You look at him in
me, and say whatever it is you need to tell him right now. I'll listen
as him, and do the best I can to express what's going on for him as him.

Let's feel where this goes, if we try it.
"So, now I'm Henry. Tell me, what am I really like? What
kind of man am I?... OK, how do you feel in your body right now,
talking to me?
"As Henry, I feel very heavy and tight. It's very hard for me to
listen to you now without interrupting... What you're telling me right
now is true. I've been afraid to listen to you... I'm sorry. Please
forgive me... Despite all our trouble, I do love you and respect you
as you are."

This role playing usually becomes very real in a very natural
way. Most partners are ready to handle role playing dialogues.
There's a world of difference from saying, "I'm really angry at Henry.
He's so irritating and defensive," versus, "Henry, I am really pissed
at you right now. I'm very frustrated by your defensiveness.
My throat is really tight now."

The direct dialogue is satisfying. Insights and resolutions are
achieved straightaway. The guide has to be able to allow
involvement and detachment both. The oneness of Mind guarantees
that "Henry's issues" are in fact likely to be his, too. The play has
many levels. The guide and partner often enjoy playing rather
skillfully. The partner has the immense relief of speaking intensely
and freely, and being heard, straight on, face to face.

The guide usually will be able to empathize well enough with
"Henry" to speak his part and describe his process. The liveliness of
the situation makes psychic information freely available. The first
words that come are likely to be usefully accurate. This natural and
spontaneous psychic ability in itself is valuable to experience and
understand.

"Since we all exist together in One Mind in a dynamic
intimacy that transcends time and space, our role playing dialogues
and communion serve to communicate information and feelings to
those important others who seem far away or not even physically
alive. Something is bound to get through; something is being shifted;
everyone involved is being helped by what we're doing here."

Even very painful situations can be played out, as "victims"
confront "perpetrators", or a mother talks to the daughter given away
at birth for adoption. Usually, a sense of completion is reached in a
few minutes. There is a mood of relief, pleasure, success, intimacy,
and energy. Unless more emotional issues surface, the communion
is likely to shift quickly into reincarnational and spiritual levels.

It can achieve a lot to just role play saying, "No," over and
over, until the partner can say it effectively and fully.
Then explore, "Yes."


http://groups.yahoo.com/group/rmforall/messages/1
Lively Communion: Invoking Mutual Meditative Exploration 2001.06.22

Rich Murray Room For All rmforall@...
1943 Otowi Road, Santa Fe, New Mexico 87505 505-501-2298

1. INTRODUCTION: We now join in exploring the co-creation
of an open ended process of mutual meditative exploration.
We call this Lively Communion.

God. That word. May it refer to
something real, to our actual experience.

As fabled lovers leap from terra firma into abyss, we hold
mental hands and fall together into openness, into space, into the
intimate unknown, into peace, bliss, and power. Naturally, it is
effortless, spontaneous, yet surprising and vigorous, a white water
rafting of two souls. We journey, mostly, with open eyes, and open
"I's". And, most humanly, we talk and talk-- but mainly about what is
happening right now. .. This is Lively Communion. Let us
agree to cooperate in allowing it to happen now, in this very writing
and reading......


Similar allowing-surrendering approaches are given in The Infinite Way of
Joel Sol Goldsmith, and in A Course in Miracles.

Thanks, Rich


----- Original Message -----
From: "Steve Randall" <steve@...>
To: <tsk@yahoogroups.com>
Sent: Monday, May 11, 2009 8:29 PM
Subject: [tsk] An adaptation of the Giant Body exercise series from the
first TSK book


> Hello, everyone,
>
> I found it useful for my own practice to write a summary and variant of
> the Giant Body exercises in the first book, which I've included here:
>
> While breathing through both mouth and nose gently, smoothly, and
> continuously, allow awareness to be drawn to any sensation, density, pain,
> heaviness, emotion, or other feeling in or on the body. Let awareness and
> feeling merge , or let awareness arise from any feeling that is not
> completely open and spacious. Just abide in the interaction. There's no
> need to try to change anything--most likely the quality or location of
> feeling will change on its own, eventually becoming more open and
> spacious. As things change, awareness can be drawn to other feelings.
> There's a natural movement of awareness, possibly taking various
> positions, locations, points of view, or simultaneous viewpoints, or no
> apparent viewpoint, location, or direction at all. Awareness can operate
> and interact with feeling at different levels of magnification or size,
> possibly at the level of organs, tissues, cells, molecules, atoms, and
> subatomic particles.
>
> As the interaction of awareness and feeling proceeds, see whether there
> are any persistent feelings or apparently persistent structures or regions
> or surfaces or boundaries--such as 'body', 'kidney', 'blood cell',
> 'belly', or 'skin'. Do these continue to persist, or do they become more
> open? Do they have some kind of feeling of reality, existence, or a
> substantial quality? Is awareness hindered or obstructed somehow from
> interacting or merging with such structures, regions, or surfaces?
>
> Is there any awareness of size or shape related to various structures or
> regions or surfaces? Does the sense of size or shape come and go,
> depending on the related viewpoint, or lack of a located viewpoint? Is
> there any sense of extension of any aspects of 'the body' in space, or a
> subtle feeling of it being located in an infinite, yet empty 'container'?
> Let awareness merge with any such feelings.
>
> In the movement and interaction of awareness with forms and surfaces, is
> it ever limited to subtle positions or perspectives or directions? Is it
> ever obstructed in any way? Does it focus on distinct regions or fields?
> Does its breadth, range, or scope vary? Does it ever seem to lose all
> sense of definite scope and direction?
>
> Is there any distinction whatsoever between awareness and the structures,
> regions, or surfaces? If so, precisely what makes the difference? How do
> the forms or outlines seem to exist, to feel 'real'? Do the forms or
> outlines seem to somehow be imaginary or 'unreal'?
>
>
>
>
> ------------------------------------
>
> Yahoo! Groups Links
>
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>
>