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The asanas will help so it's best to learn yoga. Also, deep breathing is vital.
Eckhart Tolle also improvised an energy practice but without the asanas:
"Close your eyes. Lie flat on your back. Choose different parts of your body to focus your attention on briefly at first: hands, feet, arms, legs, abdomen, chest, head, and so on. Feel the life energy inside those parts as intensely as you can. Stay with each part for fifteen seconds or so. Then let your attention run through the body like a wave a few times, from feet to head and back again. This need only take a minute or so. After that, feel the inner body in its totality, as a single field of energy. Hold that feeling for a few minutes. Be intensely present during that time, present in every cell of your body. Don’t be concerned if the mind occasionally succeeds in drawing your attention out of the body and you lose yourself in some thought. As soon as you notice that this has happened, just return your attention to the inner body."
"Make sure the body is relaxed. Close your eyes. Take a few deep breaths. Feel yourself breathing into the lower abdomen, as it were. Observe how it expands and contracts slightly with each in and out breath. Then become aware of the entire inner energy field of the body. Don’t think about it — feel it. By doing this, you reclaim consciousness from the mind.
When you can feel the inner body clearly as a single field of energy, let go, if possible, of any visual image and focus exclusively on the feeling. If you can, also drop any mental image you may still have of the physical body. All that is left then is an all-encompassing sense of presence or “beingness,” and the inner body is felt to be without a boundary. Then take your attention even more deeply into that feeling. Become one with it. Merge with the energy field, so that there is no longer a perceived duality of the observer and the observed, of you and your body. The distinction between inner and outer also dissolves now, so there is no inner body anymore. By going deeply into the body, you have transcended the body.
Stay in this realm of pure Being for as long as feels comfortable; then become aware again of the physical body, your breathing and physical senses, and open your eyes. Look at your surroundings for a few minutes in a meditative way — that is, without labeling them mentally — and continue to feel the inner body as you do so."
I think it's the first time this kind of practice is present in this blog, it's because a new understanding from you or Thusness?
It's funny that I do just the practice you're talking about (the one from E Tolle) just after waking up in the morning... without knowing very well what I was doing and because of an advice of my friend Dharmi... It was of great help for dissolving duality even later meditating... so meditation is no more someone observing something but a real "BEING".
So I agree it's interesting to add this kind of practice...
Actually Thusness has been practicing yoga for a long time and has been doing energy practices since young so it's nothing new to him. He had some experience for quite some time.
He only told me to practice recently because he sees my energy is lacking and wants to bring me to the next level of anatta where energy and presence is intense, boundless, everywhere and powerfully present.
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Thank you very much.
What is meant by "energy practice"?
For example, yoga, qigong, etc. Also, tantric practices deal with it a lot. I'm beginning to learn yoga.
The asanas will help so it's best to learn yoga. Also, deep breathing is vital.
Eckhart Tolle also improvised an energy practice but without the asanas:
"Close your eyes. Lie flat on your back. Choose different parts of your body to focus your attention on briefly at first: hands, feet, arms, legs, abdomen, chest, head, and so on. Feel the life energy inside those parts as intensely as you can. Stay with each part for fifteen seconds or so. Then let your attention run through the body like a wave a few times, from feet to head and back again. This need only take a minute or so. After that, feel the inner body in its totality, as a single field of energy. Hold that feeling for a few minutes. Be intensely present during that time, present in every cell of your body. Don’t be concerned if the mind occasionally succeeds in drawing your attention out of the body and you lose yourself in some thought. As soon as you notice that this has happened, just return your attention to the inner body."
"Make sure the body is relaxed. Close your eyes. Take a few deep breaths. Feel yourself breathing into the lower abdomen, as it were. Observe how it expands and contracts slightly with each in and out breath. Then become aware of the entire inner energy field of the body. Don’t think about it — feel it. By doing this, you reclaim consciousness from the mind.
When you can feel the inner body clearly as a single field of energy, let go, if possible, of any visual image and focus exclusively on the feeling. If you can, also drop any mental image you may still have of the physical body. All that is left then is an all-encompassing sense of presence or “beingness,” and the inner body is felt to be without a boundary. Then take your attention even more deeply into that feeling. Become one with it. Merge with the energy field, so that there is no longer a perceived duality of the observer and the observed, of you and your body. The distinction between inner and outer also dissolves now, so there is no inner body anymore. By going deeply into the body, you have transcended the body.
Stay in this realm of pure Being for as long as feels comfortable; then become aware again of the physical body, your breathing and physical senses, and open your eyes. Look at your surroundings for a few minutes in a meditative way — that is, without labeling them mentally — and continue to feel the inner body as you do so."
Thank you Soh. Very helpful.
I think it's the first time this kind of practice is present in this blog, it's because a new understanding from you or Thusness?
It's funny that I do just the practice you're talking about (the one from E Tolle) just after waking up in the morning... without knowing very well what I was doing and because of an advice of my friend Dharmi... It was of great help for dissolving duality even later meditating... so meditation is no more someone observing something but a real "BEING".
So I agree it's interesting to add this kind of practice...
Than you again, my friend
Actually Thusness has been practicing yoga for a long time and has been doing energy practices since young so it's nothing new to him. He had some experience for quite some time.
He only told me to practice recently because he sees my energy is lacking and wants to bring me to the next level of anatta where energy and presence is intense, boundless, everywhere and powerfully present.