a way to open the heart to........

[running]

ok. so i have no idea if this works for other folks. but this is what i did and was the main engine for going into bliss and silence.

1.feel into the heart. or anywhere for that matter. see if you can feel something. like a pain. or something that needs to be released.

2. go into like a trance and feel it come into view.

3. live through it and ALLOW whatever thoughts, memories, emotions to be experinced.

4. follow it through until its gone. may me moments, days, months, or longer. spending some time every day to clear through the stuff.


for me this took a few hours or so a day for a couple few years. becoming friends with whatever rises. may be for me at least sorta uncontrollable crying, screaming, and so on. so i only did this while by myself in a place where i wouldn't freak anybody out or anybody could hear or see me.

disclaimer. i was once told what i was doing was dangerous. i think maybe. but for me. my personality and intuition felt at home doing this as a practice to get from point a to point b. nothing bad ever happend. no idea what it would be like for someone else to do this as a practice. i dont endorse it. im only sharing it. its called releasing the emotional body.

for me as the stuff cleared. i would become overwhelmed in bliss. over time it got stuck in me as enough cleared out. i can only speak for how it went for me.

Meditation can also involve this - sitting with whatever arises, making peace, not resisting.

Good for you, running. And thanks for sharing your experiences.

JL

[running]

Originally Posted by janielee

Meditation can also involve this - sitting with whatever arises, making peace, not resisting.

Good for you, running. And thanks for sharing your experiences.

JL

sorry for the late response. but i couldnt agree more with you about meditation as you described it. so true

[iamthat]

Reminds me of the process described by Brandon Bays in The Journey (with apologies in advance for the length of this quote):

So, as I sat down in that peach chair, I knew I wasn’t sitting there to face and resolve just any old emotional issue. I was there to face one of the biggest issues of my life - to examine my very identity, to find out what was driving me, and more than that, to find out what was at the core of it all. It felt huge. And as I sat there, innocent and open, I didn’t know where to begin. I felt very alone. I didn’t have a teacher to point the way and help me through. My husband wasn’t there to hold my hand. I was completely on my own. Silently I made a strong vow not to distract myself from the project, not to make any phone calls to reach out to people, nor to receive any. I wasn’t going to indulge this addiction, not for five days. I was simply going to do what the teacher said: “In the face of strong emotion, don’t move, welcome it.”

So I sat still in the chair. After about five minutes I began to sweat. My heart began to pound at the very thought that I wouldn’t be allowing myself to get up and answer the phone to anyone needing help. My mind began to race to all the people in my life that I ‘should’ be reaching out to. So, to calm my mind, I decided I’d start the big experiment with meditation. But even that was difficult, as it brought the fear more fiercely into my face. The question arose, “If I’m not serving anyone, and there’s no service to be done, and no one serving, then who am I?” There was an inner scrambling, an overwhelming fear that if there was no service being done, and no one doing the service, then there would be no one there.

I decided to let myself face the fear straight on, not to run away from it, but just allow myself to feel it completely, be overwhelmed by it if need be, and stick to the teacher’s advice, “Welcome it, and just don’t move.” So I sat there holding the sides of the chair, and allowed myself to feel the full energy of the fear. My hands were sweating, and my body felt flooded by it. As I welcomed this fear I began sinking inwardly. I sank into a loneliness - a loneliness so deep it seemed as if the whole room was lonely. It felt like the chairs emanated loneliness, and the walls were lonely; a loneliness so profound, all the molecules in the room vibrated with it. It seemed there was no place the loneliness was not. Still I kept my vow. No matter what the emotion, I would not move, I would just be present to it, feel it completely, and let myself be carried into the very core of it.

After some time, I began sinking from loneliness into an other layer of emotion. I fell into a despair so deep I didn’t know I could feel that hopeless. It was the feeling, “If there’s no service being given, and no one to serve, then what’s the use of living? Why bother?” There was a feeling of just giving up, and a willingness to pack it all in, to die. I’d never experienced such overwhelming pain mixed so completely with utter hopelessness and helplessness. Despair was everywhere, and there was no avoiding it.

Just when it seemed as if the despair would overwhelm me, I felt myself sinking again through yet another layer, only this time I seemed to be standing on the edge of what appeared to be an abyss - a black hole, an absolute nothingness. Terror arose as a sickly cold sweat broke out all over my body. I felt that I would die if I went in ‘there.’ I froze. I got absolutely stuck and resistant. It seemed like the blackness of annihilation. So I just stood there, in my mind’s eye, frozen on the edge of what I was certain would be my own death, or at least the death of Brandon as I knew her. The terror was overwhelming; tears flashed from my eyes, my hands gripped the chair. The terror was exhausting, yet I still kept my commitment: I did not move. I was stuck, unable or unwilling to surrender, yet steadfast in my vow. I was frozen in terror, and didn’t know what to do. Still I didn’t move. Time went by.

Finally a question arose, “What if I were never to leave this place, and I were stuck here always?” And in that moment something happened. It was as if my will finally caved in, and I surrendered. I found myself free-falling... free-falling through nothingness, and expanding into a peace that mere words can’t begin to describe. The entire room filled with peace. It radiated peace. I was peace, and I was also everything in the room. Peace and an indescribable love seemed to fill the room. I was the love that is the source of life itself. I was the molecules dancing, and all the spaces in between. Everything in the room seemed to scintillate with shining peace, and yet simultaneously I had the profound, undeniable recognition that this peace was not a passing state, nor was it something outside me. It was me. I’d fallen into my very soul. And my soul was everything. I felt boundless, limitless, eternal, timeless - I felt that this that I am reached beyond the reaches of the universe, with all of life happening in me. I realized that this must be the “peace that passeth all understanding” - the peace beyond understanding, beyond the comprehension of the mind. I knew myself as pure awareness, absolute freedom, limitless love.

Peace.

[Akira]

Originally Posted by running

ok. so i have no idea if this works for other folks. but this is what i did and was the main engine for going into bliss and silence.

1.feel into the heart. or anywhere for that matter. see if you can feel something. like a pain. or something that needs to be released.

2. go into like a trance and feel it come into view.

3. live through it and ALLOW whatever thoughts, memories, emotions to be experinced.

4. follow it through until its gone. may me moments, days, months, or longer. spending some time every day to clear through the stuff.


for me this took a few hours or so a day for a couple few years. becoming friends with whatever rises. may be for me at least sorta uncontrollable crying, screaming, and so on. so i only did this while by myself in a place where i wouldn't freak anybody out or anybody could hear or see me.

disclaimer. i was once told what i was doing was dangerous. i think maybe. but for me. my personality and intuition felt at home doing this as a practice to get from point a to point b. nothing bad ever happend. no idea what it would be like for someone else to do this as a practice. i dont endorse it. im only sharing it. its called releasing the emotional body.

for me as the stuff cleared. i would become overwhelmed in bliss. over time it got stuck in me as enough cleared out. i can only speak for how it went for me.

I think that it's only dangerous if you don't know what you are doing. So a neophyte/layman would need to be suppported if they were doing this. However, of course it always pays to be safe.

I use inner child work, which works on a similar principle and yes as time goes by things start to breakdown and clear.

Thank you for sharing your method

[running]

Originally Posted by iamthat

Reminds me of the process described by Brandon Bays in The Journey (with apologies in advance for the length of this quote):

So, as I sat down in that peach chair, I knew I wasn’t sitting there to face and resolve just any old emotional issue. I was there to face one of the biggest issues of my life - to examine my very identity, to find out what was driving me, and more than that, to find out what was at the core of it all. It felt huge. And as I sat there, innocent and open, I didn’t know where to begin. I felt very alone. I didn’t have a teacher to point the way and help me through. My husband wasn’t there to hold my hand. I was completely on my own. Silently I made a strong vow not to distract myself from the project, not to make any phone calls to reach out to people, nor to receive any. I wasn’t going to indulge this addiction, not for five days. I was simply going to do what the teacher said: “In the face of strong emotion, don’t move, welcome it.”

So I sat still in the chair. After about five minutes I began to sweat. My heart began to pound at the very thought that I wouldn’t be allowing myself to get up and answer the phone to anyone needing help. My mind began to race to all the people in my life that I ‘should’ be reaching out to. So, to calm my mind, I decided I’d start the big experiment with meditation. But even that was difficult, as it brought the fear more fiercely into my face. The question arose, “If I’m not serving anyone, and there’s no service to be done, and no one serving, then who am I?” There was an inner scrambling, an overwhelming fear that if there was no service being done, and no one doing the service, then there would be no one there.

I decided to let myself face the fear straight on, not to run away from it, but just allow myself to feel it completely, be overwhelmed by it if need be, and stick to the teacher’s advice, “Welcome it, and just don’t move.” So I sat there holding the sides of the chair, and allowed myself to feel the full energy of the fear. My hands were sweating, and my body felt flooded by it. As I welcomed this fear I began sinking inwardly. I sank into a loneliness - a loneliness so deep it seemed as if the whole room was lonely. It felt like the chairs emanated loneliness, and the walls were lonely; a loneliness so profound, all the molecules in the room vibrated with it. It seemed there was no place the loneliness was not. Still I kept my vow. No matter what the emotion, I would not move, I would just be present to it, feel it completely, and let myself be carried into the very core of it.

After some time, I began sinking from loneliness into an other layer of emotion. I fell into a despair so deep I didn’t know I could feel that hopeless. It was the feeling, “If there’s no service being given, and no one to serve, then what’s the use of living? Why bother?” There was a feeling of just giving up, and a willingness to pack it all in, to die. I’d never experienced such overwhelming pain mixed so completely with utter hopelessness and helplessness. Despair was everywhere, and there was no avoiding it.

Just when it seemed as if the despair would overwhelm me, I felt myself sinking again through yet another layer, only this time I seemed to be standing on the edge of what appeared to be an abyss - a black hole, an absolute nothingness. Terror arose as a sickly cold sweat broke out all over my body. I felt that I would die if I went in ‘there.’ I froze. I got absolutely stuck and resistant. It seemed like the blackness of annihilation. So I just stood there, in my mind’s eye, frozen on the edge of what I was certain would be my own death, or at least the death of Brandon as I knew her. The terror was overwhelming; tears flashed from my eyes, my hands gripped the chair. The terror was exhausting, yet I still kept my commitment: I did not move. I was stuck, unable or unwilling to surrender, yet steadfast in my vow. I was frozen in terror, and didn’t know what to do. Still I didn’t move. Time went by.

Finally a question arose, “What if I were never to leave this place, and I were stuck here always?” And in that moment something happened. It was as if my will finally caved in, and I surrendered. I found myself free-falling... free-falling through nothingness, and expanding into a peace that mere words can’t begin to describe. The entire room filled with peace. It radiated peace. I was peace, and I was also everything in the room. Peace and an indescribable love seemed to fill the room. I was the love that is the source of life itself. I was the molecules dancing, and all the spaces in between. Everything in the room seemed to scintillate with shining peace, and yet simultaneously I had the profound, undeniable recognition that this peace was not a passing state, nor was it something outside me. It was me. I’d fallen into my very soul. And my soul was everything. I felt boundless, limitless, eternal, timeless - I felt that this that I am reached beyond the reaches of the universe, with all of life happening in me. I realized that this must be the “peace that passeth all understanding” - the peace beyond understanding, beyond the comprehension of the mind. I knew myself as pure awareness, absolute freedom, limitless love.

Peace.

profound!

thanks for sharing

[running]

Originally Posted by Akira

I think that it's only dangerous if you don't know what you are doing. So a neophyte/layman would need to be suppported if they were doing this. However, of course it always pays to be safe.

I use inner child work, which works on a similar principle and yes as time goes by things start to breakdown and clear.

Thank you for sharing your method

and thank you for sharing as well

[Unseeking Seeker]

***

Observing for releasing ... negativity
Requires allowing in a manner non-judging
Recognising that it always was our clinging
That allowed the nurturing by so feeding ... negativity

Hardly dangerous I’d say ... more dangerous to suppress

I call it continuous contemplative consciousness correction

***

[running]

Originally Posted by Unseeking Seeker

***

Observing for releasing ... negativity
Requires allowing in a manner non-judging
Recognising that it always was our clinging
That allowed the nurturing by so feeding ... negativity

Hardly dangerous I’d say ... more dangerous to suppress

I call it continuous contemplative consciousness correction

***

i agree. especially from the big picture. thanks for sharing!

Pen to paper.
Is a big tool for this fool.
With prayer and meditation.
Willingness,trust and vulnerability are key for me.
One eyed pictures I see.
Innocent observer letting it unfold or unfeel.
The lessons undone, we peel, Me, Myself and I.
Connection with the Loving source is goal.
I also liked reading (The inner child by Akira )
Thanks for the thread.