Heightened Awareness (May 2020, Part 1)

Visualization, Chih-kuan & Great Circle

While all meditations can be helpful [in achieving an expanded awareness], some types that lead to trance, deep immersion and otherworldly feelings do not fit our idea of what we are looking for in the quest for heightened awareness. [Here] we will give instruction in Chih-kuan meditation and the Great Circle Meditation. First, however, I would like to offer a visualization that can precede practice of either meditation – one that is healing in nature and can be very helpful in attaining a heightened awareness.

A Russian woman I knew went to the hospital with a mysterious ailment and found that it was sapping her strength. Later in life the ailment was diagnosed as coming from the kidneys, but at the time, doctors did not have any idea why she was steadily growing weaker.

While she was in the hospital I spoke to her by phone and explained a simple visualization to her, giving her two versions of it so that she would have a choice as to what appealed to her. She practiced the “waterfall” version continually and later told me it helped her gain the necessary strength to fight off the debilitating ailment. What is interesting is that she had some important realizations during this period in the hospital practicing the visualizations, and these influenced her later life.

Duck’s Egg

I told her to imagine a small duck’s egg balanced on the top of her head. This was to slowly crack open and the nectar from inside the egg, cool and delicious, was to slowly trickle down through her head, through the neck, then spread out to flow through the torso, reach the waist and continue at a slow pace down through the legs until it reached the soles of her feet (the so-called Bubbling Spring), where it would rest, cool and comforting, while she luxuriated in the delicious feeling that pervaded her body. The trip from the top of the head down was to be imagined in great detail, and the progress of the cool, invigorating nectar was to be slow and even.

As the nectar trickled down through the chest, lungs, liver, stomach and other internal organs, there was to be a faint sound like that of trickling water. After the nectar had rested in the soles of the feet for a short time, it was to gradually rise and fill up the bottom half of the body, from the waist down. The bottom half would begin to feel pleasingly warm. At such time, I explained, it was possible that a pleasant fragrance would become apparent to the nose, in harmony with the perception of warmth and comfort in the lower half of the body.

Waterfall Version

This version, which she practiced, is largely the same as the Duck’s Egg version. She was told to imagine standing under a great waterfall, cool but not cold, with the water cascading over her (slowly) as it came down from the top of her head to the resting spot at the bottom of the feet. Then it was to rise and gradually fill up the lower half of the body as she rested and luxuriated in it.

Either of these versions is valid and can be helpful and healing. They can be practiced from time to time in the privacy of the home, in the office or even while sitting on a plane or as a passenger in a car. There are ways to make the visualizations more complicated by taking the nectar up from the soles of the feet through the meridian channels of the body, and then down again, but there is no need to do so. Either the Duck’s Egg version or the Waterfall version should have a beneficial effect on the body and on the awareness of the mind. As it heals ailments, it removes clouds from the mind, making heightened awareness a distinct probability.

Excerpt from Heightened Awareness, available in print and in an e-book from justinstonetcc.com

Con’t on page 12-13