Friday, November 12, 2004
Ivan Granger's Map for Inner Bliss
The following beautiful meditation was written by Ivan Granger, who created the website which I have referred to earlier: www.poetry-chaikhana.com
I have been mapping the experience of inner bliss.
For several days I have been watching the experience, following how it unfolds and reveals itself to me, interrupting my meditations to scribble down notes.
I have created an outline. I know, it’s absurd. I have outlined spiritual bliss with bulletted points and sub-points and brief commentary. It’s the technician in me, the computer programmer. This is what comes of whole days spent nudging messy proceedures into a clean logic of steps and mathematical calculations.
There is something unavoidably artificial in this, an imposition of concepts and progressive movement, when the reality is non-linear and undivided. But I have found that naming these steps makes the process somehow more tangible and reproduceable. It gives form to the interior psychic landscape, labelling its landmarks, allowing me to move more certainly into the states of bliss.
This is the oversimplification of all maps. The majesty of a mountain cannot be reduced to a triangle on a page. Many will look at that triangle and be content to do no more, imagining they know the mountain. But some will look at the two-dimensional drawings and manage to find a great mountain rising into the sky.
This map is simply an observation of the liquid process of psychic opening, and it is necessarily placed into words and concepts.
So, here is my map. I hope it inspires you to make a similar journey.
* * *
Approach
(Dualistic. Devotional. Thou and I.)
- Open the Heart
If you don’t feel generosity, compassion, and love -- for yourself as well as others -- you will find little welcome.
The journey begins with the heart and ends with the heart.
- Dive Deep into the Present
Be fully present, here and now. Forget time. Recognize eternity spreading out in all directions.
- Simply and Completely Accept Yourself
How can you settle into the Self, without self-acceptance?
- Awaken the Body
-
Feel the entire body and the energies running through it, from foot to head. Feel it as a vibrant whole. Begin to feel its interweaving with the subtler bodies.
This is the pilgramage, honoring the holy places on your journey to the temple.
-
- Ring the Bell
-
Listen until you hear the meditative hum at the base of your skull. Allow it to expand until it permeates your awareness and body.
Ringing the bell announces your presence at the threshhold of the inner temple.
- Enter the Garden
(Semi-Dualistic. A sense of “joining.” Cessation of the agitations and impediments of the mind.)
-
- Radical Renunciation
-
Lovingly abandon everything, including your thoughts and emotions and all your ideas of who you are. It must be “radical” renunciation because you have to suck in your breath and just do it. Be fierce. You won’t rationally convince yourself to assume this psychic posture.
Renunciation is the equivalent of removing your shoes as you set foot upon holy ground.
-
- Inturning
-
The attention and identity is allowed to settle deep within. Sensory input is no longer attended to. You may continue to hear the ringing of the bell; let it draw your attention deeper within.
Until now, even within the Garden, you have been facing outward. Now you turn inward toward the sacred center of the Garden.
-
- Settle into Silence
-
Allow the mind to resolve itself. Quiet the mental chatter. Don’t worry, you won’t cease to exist when your thoughts do. Still the movement of emotional energies, as well. Now there is no movement, just radiant stillness.
-
- Wear the Mantle of Bliss
-
If you haven’t already noticed the bliss begin to radiate through your body and awareness, look for it. Having found it, recognize it as your proper clothing. It is yours. Wear it naturally.
-
-
- Climb the Secret Stairway
-
Gently but firmly draw the lower belly in until you feel the perineum -- the soft center of the groin between the genitals and the anus -- fill and open. Let that pleasant tension turn inward and rise. No effort is required. It wants to rise, just get out of the way.
- Enter the Secret Cave
-
(Non-Dualistic. No self, just Self. The cessation of the ego and its agitations.)
-
- Step Aside into the Natural State
All previous steps can be achieved by individual focus, effort, and practice, but the natural state can only be recognized. It isn’t created by will or mind, it is only realized. You must simply allow yourself to remember it, to recognize it as always having been.
Here you must stand naked, wearing nothing, hiding behind nothing, clinging to nothing. Without support, without artifice, you are.
-
- Glow
In the Secret Cave, there is unexpectedly light and warmth and immense space. Let it flow unhindered through you, until you recognize that there is no dividing point between you and that glow. It is you.
-
- Anointing
The glow resolves itself into a living fountain, an effulgent pool with no shoreline. It is a living golden-white ocean. A Christian would call this the blood of Christ, the chrism oil. A Hindu would call it amrita. The Sufis would call it Wine. Immerse yourself in this Sea of your true Self. Drink and drown and live in it.
-
- Heart
Although you have climbed the secret stairway to the crown, you find yourself surprisingly in the heart. Here is a mystery that defies logic: Though you have journeyed throughout the world and deep into the Garden, descended and ascended, you discover that the Secret Cave contains everything, and it is all centered in the heart. This is your home, this is your seat. This is your true self. Claim it as your right. Bury the point of identity here.
-
- Union
All of this is union. Every step, all of it, not just the end. It is all union, and it is perpetually occurring, whether you are regularly aware of it or not.
Reverent Re-Emergence
-
- Linger Near the Garden
-
Don’t jump up immediately and engage in activities. Sit quietly. Savor the moment. Honor it. Sometimes you find that this is when you most easily and unexpectedly slip into the Holy of Holies, when you have given up, when you have thought to leave. Allow for that to happen.
-
- Carry Peace, Give Peace
-
A gesture of reverence, bowing or bringing the palms together over the heart. Hold the awareness of peace and bliss, remember it; it is you. Wish this peace to all. As you rise, carry it with you.
-
- Exit Without Leaving
Do not abandon this awareness, no matter what you may be doing outwardly. Do not let the identity shift from where you have planted it. The meditation does not end, the mind does not initiate new agitations, there is just the resumption of apparent activity.
Copyright, Ivan Granger
The following beautiful meditation was written by Ivan Granger, who created the website which I have referred to earlier: www.poetry-chaikhana.com
I have been mapping the experience of inner bliss.
For several days I have been watching the experience, following how it unfolds and reveals itself to me, interrupting my meditations to scribble down notes.
I have created an outline. I know, it’s absurd. I have outlined spiritual bliss with bulletted points and sub-points and brief commentary. It’s the technician in me, the computer programmer. This is what comes of whole days spent nudging messy proceedures into a clean logic of steps and mathematical calculations.
There is something unavoidably artificial in this, an imposition of concepts and progressive movement, when the reality is non-linear and undivided. But I have found that naming these steps makes the process somehow more tangible and reproduceable. It gives form to the interior psychic landscape, labelling its landmarks, allowing me to move more certainly into the states of bliss.
This is the oversimplification of all maps. The majesty of a mountain cannot be reduced to a triangle on a page. Many will look at that triangle and be content to do no more, imagining they know the mountain. But some will look at the two-dimensional drawings and manage to find a great mountain rising into the sky.
This map is simply an observation of the liquid process of psychic opening, and it is necessarily placed into words and concepts.
So, here is my map. I hope it inspires you to make a similar journey.
* * *
Approach
(Dualistic. Devotional. Thou and I.)
- Open the Heart
If you don’t feel generosity, compassion, and love -- for yourself as well as others -- you will find little welcome.
The journey begins with the heart and ends with the heart.
- Dive Deep into the Present
Be fully present, here and now. Forget time. Recognize eternity spreading out in all directions.
- Simply and Completely Accept Yourself
How can you settle into the Self, without self-acceptance?
- Awaken the Body
-
Feel the entire body and the energies running through it, from foot to head. Feel it as a vibrant whole. Begin to feel its interweaving with the subtler bodies.
This is the pilgramage, honoring the holy places on your journey to the temple.
-
- Ring the Bell
-
Listen until you hear the meditative hum at the base of your skull. Allow it to expand until it permeates your awareness and body.
Ringing the bell announces your presence at the threshhold of the inner temple.
- Enter the Garden
(Semi-Dualistic. A sense of “joining.” Cessation of the agitations and impediments of the mind.)
-
- Radical Renunciation
-
Lovingly abandon everything, including your thoughts and emotions and all your ideas of who you are. It must be “radical” renunciation because you have to suck in your breath and just do it. Be fierce. You won’t rationally convince yourself to assume this psychic posture.
Renunciation is the equivalent of removing your shoes as you set foot upon holy ground.
-
- Inturning
-
The attention and identity is allowed to settle deep within. Sensory input is no longer attended to. You may continue to hear the ringing of the bell; let it draw your attention deeper within.
Until now, even within the Garden, you have been facing outward. Now you turn inward toward the sacred center of the Garden.
-
- Settle into Silence
-
Allow the mind to resolve itself. Quiet the mental chatter. Don’t worry, you won’t cease to exist when your thoughts do. Still the movement of emotional energies, as well. Now there is no movement, just radiant stillness.
-
- Wear the Mantle of Bliss
-
If you haven’t already noticed the bliss begin to radiate through your body and awareness, look for it. Having found it, recognize it as your proper clothing. It is yours. Wear it naturally.
-
-
- Climb the Secret Stairway
-
Gently but firmly draw the lower belly in until you feel the perineum -- the soft center of the groin between the genitals and the anus -- fill and open. Let that pleasant tension turn inward and rise. No effort is required. It wants to rise, just get out of the way.
- Enter the Secret Cave
-
(Non-Dualistic. No self, just Self. The cessation of the ego and its agitations.)
-
- Step Aside into the Natural State
All previous steps can be achieved by individual focus, effort, and practice, but the natural state can only be recognized. It isn’t created by will or mind, it is only realized. You must simply allow yourself to remember it, to recognize it as always having been.
Here you must stand naked, wearing nothing, hiding behind nothing, clinging to nothing. Without support, without artifice, you are.
-
- Glow
In the Secret Cave, there is unexpectedly light and warmth and immense space. Let it flow unhindered through you, until you recognize that there is no dividing point between you and that glow. It is you.
-
- Anointing
The glow resolves itself into a living fountain, an effulgent pool with no shoreline. It is a living golden-white ocean. A Christian would call this the blood of Christ, the chrism oil. A Hindu would call it amrita. The Sufis would call it Wine. Immerse yourself in this Sea of your true Self. Drink and drown and live in it.
-
- Heart
Although you have climbed the secret stairway to the crown, you find yourself surprisingly in the heart. Here is a mystery that defies logic: Though you have journeyed throughout the world and deep into the Garden, descended and ascended, you discover that the Secret Cave contains everything, and it is all centered in the heart. This is your home, this is your seat. This is your true self. Claim it as your right. Bury the point of identity here.
-
- Union
All of this is union. Every step, all of it, not just the end. It is all union, and it is perpetually occurring, whether you are regularly aware of it or not.
Reverent Re-Emergence
-
- Linger Near the Garden
-
Don’t jump up immediately and engage in activities. Sit quietly. Savor the moment. Honor it. Sometimes you find that this is when you most easily and unexpectedly slip into the Holy of Holies, when you have given up, when you have thought to leave. Allow for that to happen.
-
- Carry Peace, Give Peace
-
A gesture of reverence, bowing or bringing the palms together over the heart. Hold the awareness of peace and bliss, remember it; it is you. Wish this peace to all. As you rise, carry it with you.
-
- Exit Without Leaving
Do not abandon this awareness, no matter what you may be doing outwardly. Do not let the identity shift from where you have planted it. The meditation does not end, the mind does not initiate new agitations, there is just the resumption of apparent activity.
Copyright, Ivan Granger
