Theos-Talk Archives (April 1996 Message tl00244)

This morning I discovered a practice that may be old news to
some of you, but which was "a real blast" for me, and which
might be of some use to someone.  This is especially relevant
to anyone who, like me, lives in a rural environment and does a
lot of driving on blue highways.  The Capitol Beltway might not
be the place to try this, but...

Edgar Cayce gives an esoteric interpretation of the Lord's
Prayer in which the portion "Our Father which art in heaven,
hallowed by thy name; Thy kingdom come, thy will be done on
earth as it is in heaven" accompanies a successive awareness of
the crown, brow, throat and heart chakras-- or the pituitary,
pineal, thyroid and thymus glands at the physical level.
Inspired by this, I have used Nam (name) as a mantram and
recited it silently while staying focused at the eye center.
This is do-it-yourself shabd yoga Simran.  But Cayce, unlike
the Radhasoami tradition, also emphasizes the heart center.  So
this morning, after going through the whole Lord's Prayer,
while driving in the country I repeated "thy kingdom come" and
"thy will be done on earth" while feeling centered in the
heart.  Alternating sometimes with "hallowed be thy name" at
the eye center.

What happened is that the material environment took on a divine
glow, I felt a connection between spirit and matter that was
new to me, and I intuited new meaning in "thy kingdom come."
It didn't feel like asking for something to happen in the
future, near or distant, but rather stating my will to perceive
something in the now.  Seeing in the farms and woods and
streams God's kingdom and will manifest on earth was-- well,
memorable.  This was quite different from the rather abstracted
state that results from staying at the eye center.

In reference to an ongoing debate on theos-l, I must add that
this practice underscored the relevance or utility of visual
clairvoyance as an aid to mindfulness and devotion.  Seeing an
irridiscent radiance around the cows, horses etc. while riding
around may well be a result of "forcing kundalini" with these
Third Eye practices.  But being aware of the heart-dimension of
reality made that experience one of profound compassionate
oneness with animal life.  In metaphorical terms, it is as if a
flame is lit in the eye center that causes one to see creatures
in this way (humans included of course)-- and then that
awareness causes a flame to be lit in the heart center which
causes one to *feel* the life in those beings and our oneness
with it.

When I bounced out of the altered state and was thinking about
it, the conclusion I reached was that when we are consciously present up
there in the neocortex, we are experiencing ourselves in
connection to possible higher-than-human beings, in whatever
form, or at least with our evolutionary future as present in
the lotus seed of our present hardware.  This causes a kind of
upward floating sensation.  But when we move our attention to
the heart, we are experiencing ourselves at the level where we
are one with all other beings with hearts-- mammalia, birds,
reptiles-- which produces a downward, grounding sensation.
Combining or alternating the two feels more like a proper,
integrative awareness than just staying focused on top.  At one
level, it's an integration of past and future; at another, an
integration of mind and will.

If this is all obvious and silly, please ignore.