The Inner Witness is the Presence of the Soul - Vipassana

An essential practice of most spiritual traditions has been to create a place of inner observation, leading to silence and stillness. This is the basic foundation of meditation, which is often called Vipassana, meaning witnessing.

The basis of it, is to look within, and see that there is an inner presence, who is not the body, who can observe the body. We can also see that this same presence is not the emotions and feelings : even when we feel overwhelmed by intense emotions, there is always an inner presence who is watching the process, who is not the emotions. And in the same way, this inner presence is also not the thoughts : the thoughts may go on rambling in all directions, this inner presence is still there watching the process.

This inner presence, inner observer, is a higher consciousness than the physical, energetic (etheric), emotional and mental parts of us, it is the presence of the Soul.

This inner presence of the Soul is one with all of life, it is the presence of the One/Source/Cosmic Ocean living within us, it moves all of us, it moves all life, it is all life.

This One/Cosmic Ocean, takes many shapes, in the form of many living beings and many spaces and times, but it is always the same One, simply shape-shifting.

So the physical emotional and mental are also the One, who has taken these particular shapes for the moment. They are temporary shapes, they are like the waves and currents of the ocean, they are not the ocean itself, the ocean always remains the same water, regardless of the currents and waves.

There has been a widespread habit on this planet, that when physical and energetic sensations, and emotions feelings and thoughts come, to become attached, invested, and identified in them. So something happens within, and people are trying to push away the sensation or emotion or thought, or trying to pull and cling to the sensation, emotion or thought.

This habit of inner pushing and pulling, creates an identification with the sensations and emotions and thoughts, which prevents them from flowing, and which also creates a forgetting of the inner presence of the Soul, and this is source of pains and unconsciousness.

Ironically the pushing and pulling does exactly the opposite of what it intends to do. The more we try to push away a thought, the more it clings to us, and the more we try to grab on to a feeling, the less we can feel it.
Anybody can try and experiment with this : pick a random subject and try with a lot of effort to not think about it, and the more effort is done, the more the thought will keep coming back. Or try with a lot of effort to remember something, the more effort to remember the more it will disappear ; and then when we give up trying to remember it, the memory comes back on its own. Or if an external noise bothers us, the more we try to push it away the more it becomes a bother, and by just forgetting about it we don't notice it anymore.

Why is this ? Because when we do this inner push and pull, it creates an identification and attachment with the temporary shapes and currents of the ocean, rather than with the water itself ; or in other words the consciousness is identified with the illusion of separated self, rather than with the inner presence of the Soul, the One. Then the sensations emotions and thoughts can not flow properly. Then we forget the inner presence of the observer/Soul, and then the Soul presence can not do its work properly, and then there is pain and suffering.

So the basic foundation of meditation, Vipassana, is to stop this loop of identification and suffering. The process is very simple : whatever happens within : physical sensation, emotions, thoughts, we just observe them passively and silently, not pushing and pulling them, no judgement, no comment, neutral. Just watching passively, as if from a distance.

Another famous way of doing this is to simply keep watching the breath as it goes in and out, follow it along its path, or watch the belly going up and down as the breath goes in and out. And while doing this, remain a passive observer of anything happening inside and outside, thoughts feelings sensations etc, are just allowed to flow.

What this does, is to bring back the energy and consciousness into the inner Soul presence. Then the observer/Soul presence becomes stronger and stronger the more we practice it, and everything else progressively disappears because energy is no longer invested in it.
The inner observer/Soul presence is turning on the Light, it is like placing a candle in a dark room, it does not need to push and pull away the darkness, simply turning on the Light is enough, darkness is gone because it doesn't really exist. 

When the Light is there, when the consciousness is centered in the observer/Soul presence, then every sensation, emotion and thought which does not belong here will disappear on its own just like darkness is gone when the Light is on ; and every sensation, emotion and thought which should be here, which is aligned with the Soul, all the happiness and inspiration, all this increases naturally.

So the body sensations, emotions and thoughts (the lower self), should be just as an empty vessel, silent and still, so that it can hold the Soul presence properly. Like a calm still lake can reflect the moon and the landscape. The lake is not doing anything, it is purely passive, or the landscape can not be seen.
Having the consciousness centered in the observer/Soul presence allows to discern everything better and better, as we are more and more disindentified from the noise of over-opinionated nonsense which arise from the identifications in the lower self, and more and more in tune with the flow of energy from the Soul/One Ocean.

When something arises that we do not like, if we are trying to push it away and doing effort to transcend it, then automatically we repress it and then it does not go away, it just becomes subconscious and keeps affecting things from there.
This can be counter-intuitive somehow, because if there is for example a physical trash bag in the house, then we need to push and pull it to go outside. This is because the physical is a more dense form of energy. But then where does the trash go ? Buried into the Earth, and she does not push and pull it, she allows it to flow into herself, and therefore it transforms into earth itself. When energies can flow, they will always return to Oneness.
If we try hard to relax, we become more and more tensed no matter what it may look like to others from outside, and if we allow the energy to flow and express, then relaxation just happens from within naturally.

The more the consciousness is centered in the inner observer/Soul presence, the more all goodness flowing through us will increase, peace, happiness, joy, inspiration. Then we can maintain this awareness centered in all activities, and anything we do from that place of awareness is more aligned, alive and nurturing, rather than draining. If we maintain this centered awareness in various forms of energy work, visualization meditations, any kind of Light work, then the energy we can channel is stronger and clearer, and more joyful for ourselves and others.

☀️ Wishing Peace to all ☀️

What is Kundalini, the Central Channel of the body, Shakti, and how to work with it

Metaphorically we can see the Higher Self, the Soul, as a Sun, and the lower self (composed of the physical etheric astral and mental bodies), as a ray of Light emanating from that Sun.

This ray of Light is like a vertical pillar of Light, which flows down through all dimensions, through all the bodies, down to the physical. This is the Central Channel of the body, which goes along the spine of the physical body. In fact, the spine is the physical manifestation of the Central Channel. This Central Channel is the presence of our Soul incarnated as the lower self, it exists in all bodies simultaneously, it is what creates all our bodies, and it is what connects our bodies with each other and with our Soul. This is why the main chakras are located along this Central Channel :

This is traditionally called the shushumna channel. The two intertwining serpents, masculine and feminine, ida and pingala, are born from the shushumna, from the Central Channel.

Energy is constantly flowing along the Central Channel, both downwards (from Soul to the lower self) and upwards (from lower self to the Soul). This is what makes us alive, and in a way it is the wire that the Soul uses to connect to the body and drive the body.

In truth, all the Souls are One, so the Sun is One, and the Central Channels of all beings all come from the same Source. Soul and body are two parts of One whole, spirit and matter are two parts of One whole, everything in creation is part of One whole, parts of One organism which is life itself :  Life is One whole, Source or God/Goddess is Life as a whole, there is nothing outside the One.

So another metaphor to describe this, is that the Souls and all life is all one ocean, and our bodies and everything we see are just waves in that ocean. The waves appear to stand out but they are still just parts of the ocean. It is all One.

Kundalini, is energy coming into the Central Channel which is not expressed, and therefore lies asleep, dormant, at the base of the spine. The reason the energy is not expressed is because of amnesia, of forgetting who we truly are, and also because of suppression of expression in society.

We are usually born with amnesia of who we are as Souls and who we are as the One ocean. Therefore we tend to not express fully our true nature. This is reinforced by suppression of expression in society, from youngest age we are usually pressured one way or another to behave a certain way, to speak a certain way, to think and feel a certain way, etc.

For example it is suppressed to dance or move the body in unusual ways in public, to sing in public, to fully express how we truly feel, to hug for too long time, etc, we are supposed to stay in line and just say 'I'm ok'. Fully honest sexual expression is especially suppressed. And people usually do not fully process their emotions, we may feel sad or angry and because it is not usually allowed to fully feel it with others, because people around are usually suppressing and rejecting the expressions of others one way or another, the energy is rarely fully flowing, fully released. Even expressions of joy are often suppressed and condemned for no valid reason. Therefore many people can not really cry or laugh or dance or express themselves anymore, they can put a very convincing mask if they want, they can mentally force themselves to smile and laugh and dance, but usually the expression is shallow, forced, it does not involve the whole being. Because the more we accumulate energy within which has not been expressed, the more difficult it becomes to genuinely express in new situations, and so people give a fake smile when they are unhappy, and can not fully laugh when they are really happy.

For this reason, most of the energies, emotions, thoughts of most people is subconscious : most people do not really know what goes on within them. And if they see glimpses of it, usually they push it back to the subconscious, pretend it is not there.

All this non expressed energy accumulates as years lived in suppression go by, creating more misery, dullness, apathy, disease, discomfort, hypocrisy, lack of vitality, etc. It is easy to feel like Buddha alone in our bedroom, but in company of others all the repressed energy becomes appearant.

Breathing creates an extra current in the Central Channel : down as the breath goes in, up as the breath goes out. The general habit of not breathing fully and not connecting with our breath is both a symptom and a contributing cause to the suppression of energy, lying dormant at the base of the spine :

http://www.meditationiseasy.com/meditation-techniques/vigyan-bhairav-tantra-third-meditation-technique/

What is commonly called Shakti energy, is our life force flowing in the Central Channel, which manifests as impulses of expression of ourself, to dance, sing, hug, express ourselves in anyway. We are alive to express, to feel the joy of being alive. As the waves rise from the ocean of life, into our Central Channel, they trigger our expression, just like they trigger the flowers to bloom and the birds to sing. This expression pulls all life together into an experience of Oneness, weaves life together into a whole.

When we live in full awareness, when we express ourselves totally in our lives, there is no dormant kundalini, all the energy is fully flowing in our energy field.

So what to do about it ?

The energy that we haven't expressed in our lives needs to be expressed. It is not enough to just have a mental understanding and discussion about it, about what happened in our past. The mental understanding can help but it usually will not fully release the energy.

There are a few ways that the energy can release. Either we consciously do something to release it, or it will create external chaotic situations in our lives which are mirrors of our inner stuck energy, in which case we can either accept the realization and release brought by the situation, or play the victim and suppress the energy even more.

Active meditation techniques in which we allow ourselves to express and move the body without conscious control, without mentally managing how we move or talk, can be very helpful. Because suppressed energy is not conscious, it is not about doing a conscious body exercise, the point is to release what is stuck subconsciously, without mentally planning what we are expressing.

It is not usually necessary to mentally remember everything we did not express in our past, what matters really is to release the energy. For example, just like many wild animals let their whole body shake to release stress, we can also shake :

https://www.osho.com/meditate/active-meditations/kundalini-meditation

Safe and nurturing human contact is also usually important. The problem is that often, people suppress their stuck energy and then project it on the other. The other problem is that people often don't allow the other to express fully.

So it is needed that all people involved hold a safe space for the other, which means that they all :

- Fully take responsibility for the experience happening

- Hold a neutral loving presence which allows the other to express any old feelings that may need to come out. Only when something is felt, expressed, then it can release and shift. This means to not try and fix the other, or not to reject the other, while the release is happening. This also means to see the Light in the other even in the moments when they are releasing their shadows. This also means that all involved do their best to embody their Light even if the other is releasing shadows. All this can only be done if all involved take full responsibility for the experience, and have forgiveness. This is what Grace is.

Aggressive energy is only possible when a lot of energy has not been expressed. Human nature is not aggressive otherwise. Therefore the only way it can resolve is to find harmonious ways to express.

A big part of the suppressed energy is usually sexual. The impulse of sexuality is simply a Shakti impulse of realizing Oneness in all our bodies. Orgasms open a portal in the Central Channel. If unconscious negative energy is infused in the orgasm process, then the energy stays even more repressed. If conscious positive energy is infused into it, then a lot of Kundalini energy can be released, and Soul and body can connect together.

Full release of Kundalini means that the Soul and lower self are now experienced as One. To only have the mental understanding that all existence is One is not enough to consciously experience it, there needs to be the full experience which comes with the full expression of our presence.

Therefore, all the healing techniques and technologies in the universe can never fully heal anybody, because they can never replace the fact that we are here to express, the Soul incarnates because it wants to experience beautiful and joyful creations. 

What healing modalities can do is simply to help to open the door, to clean things up, to open the meridians in the body, to give us an opportunity to express more easily.

This is one powerful healing technique which helps to re-open the Central Channel :

http://soul1.org

Once the Soul presence in the body is fully expressed, fully flowing, then all beings, humans and others, weave life together in a joyful wholeness. Then comes the full awareness of the unity of spirit and matter, of the whole existence. This awareness becomes enlightenment and ascension, which happens for some individuals earlier than others, but eventually it is the destiny of all life.

💖 Much Love 💖