"... develop self-reliance and ingenuity [...] If I have to explain everything, you'll get used to having things handed to you on a platter. And then what will you do when problems come up in your meditation and you don't have any experience in figuring things out on your own? [...] "
DINO HAS BEEN A CLOSE FRIEND. Over the years we have been sharing and learning a lot together and from each other. It was sincerely heart-warming to meet with him again last week after a few years. Dino has been unique (like everybody else) in that there were many unusual things combined as a single package and collectively titled "Dino". For starters, Dino invented the (name for) game of cosmic tetris…
Ingenuity is celebrating the individual uniqueness using personal creativity - a cloak tailor made by self, for self, to fit self.
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Bench-buddies:A few years ago Dino and I were together in our initial, highly volatile and experimenting stages of meditative existence. We were given certain instructions by the master, and were asked to contemplate about it, and then try to meditate on it by focusing on self. We found an empty bench during the course of the early afternoon and thought it was perfect to try and do that homework. We sat on the bench in our own right, three or four feet apart, assumed lotus position, and went about our business. About five minutes into it, and I could not help but open at least one eye in an effort to see what Dino was up to, for it was almost futile for me to carry on that day. Dino was still, and so I waited for a couple of more minutes. When I tried to check again, I found Dino also checking on me, only he shut his eyes as soon as he found me looking.
After about ten minutes of such hide and seek, we turned the bench around to make it face the white wall, and gave it another try. It seemed to work. Over the years thereafter, facing eastward close to the wall for meditation became our standard practice. Later we also found that a corner worked even better for it would bounce the energies back on to me and I found myself lasting longer in my sittings.
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Super-quick Mantra Chantings:
A certain mantra was prescribed to each of us one day, and it turned out to be unexpectedly difficult for me to practice with it - Like a wet soap bar it kept slipping away. Dino, it seemed, was doing fine a few feet away with his own practice. After Dino was done, I asked him how it went and he said he did not practice that day with the mantra either, he was rather doing the standard practice. It appeared he had had similar issues as I was having (Perhaps it was the language?). We decided to approach the master. The task of practicing the given technique was not complete, and so we were a little nervous for it was expected out of us to be diligent. Master listened to us separately and then addressed jointly:
"... mantra, chanting, sound, music, smell, incense, touch-and-gesture, posture, rhythm, body movement, breathing and control, picture-and-idols, are but only tools and techniques to hold your level of consciousness at a certain higher level, with a specific and purposeful channeling of thoughts and energies [feelings and experiences]…"
"... what I saw however made me drop my jaw. It was not a higher level experience for me, nor it was an earthquake; it was Dino!..."
Master further observed that if we supposed we could maintain our level of awareness without the suggested support of the given technique (mantra chanting, in this case), it was okay at that stage, but the technique was not to be underestimated, neither the adaptability of self to it… Both of us later practiced using the technique of mantra chanting and benefited a lot from it. In doing so, however, the element of originality was not so far behind: Dino and I came up with another kind of practice also. With chanting, pronunciations become especially important for without it the meaning and thus the channel is sometimes lost. Whilst we abided by these rules and practiced, we also practiced with a super quick recitations - a normal mantra that takes say ten seconds was pronounced in about three seconds, and such recitations were continuous and as quick as possible. Here the pronunciations might get garbled, yet the hyperventilating channel thus created used to take us to a different level all together. When conferred with Master over this, we were cautioned for maintaining the respect towards the techniques and avoid any playfulness with the sacredness of mantras (for which we were to take our vows); on the other hand however, we were not asked to discontinue the hyperventilating practice or such ingenuous explorations either.
There are certain special tantra, yantra, owl and vampire, et al practices very specific for such purposes. However, we never did anything other than 'Sātvik' (pure and white energy) practices under the aegis of the master. Whilst it was appreciated to have ingenuity and self-cultivated practices based on our own conditioning and requirements, moderation always remained the key, with the master watching over our shoulders.• • •
It Was Dino!
Dino and I were practicing for a special purpose since a few weeks. We were approaching a certain stage after which we were to change to a different method. That could have happened only if we mastered this said stage and its techniques first (only to drop it subsequently!). Dino and I were sitting in lotus position on the bench facing the wall and were going about the standard practice. It appeared that it was a really good day for me for I was having a lot of positive flux in the surroundings.
I was going into my practice where gradually but surely I found myself having minor tremors. It was very curious. The tremors, in a continuous rhythmic fashion, were being perceived from the base - the pelvic area - rising upwards. I got pretty exited, and concerned also for not loosing it. I thought (honestly) it was the kind of experience that perhaps I was waiting for - all along. A moment to cherish perhaps... Something was happening after all!
After a moment or two though I realised that the sensation was somehow more external than I would have liked, and I came back rising up into "outerness". It seemed to be more related to the place we were sitting upon. That was when I first thought that perhaps it was an earthquake! It was alarming... I opened my eyes to see where Dino was so that we could react to the situation...
What I saw however made me drop my jaw. It was not a higher level experience for me, nor it was any earthquake. It was Dino! It was Dino who was shaking his leg so hard that the whole bench, me included, was rattling with him, and I was feeling like riding a horse... I was perplexed!
I had never seen Dino like this - doing anything like that during practices. When I tried to make Dino aware of it by first gently and than vigorously shaking him out of it, he came back very mad at me. Apparently I had dragged him out of, and thus prevented, a very high level of experience for him that day (and I felt really sorry about it). It was his shaking the leg that gave him that extra 'push' that day to top all of his previous experiences thus far.
When master asked exactly when did he start doing that motion with his leg during that sitting, Dino was not aware of it. Master smiled, for it was such spontaneous ingenuity, "letting go", that was found in the making of an ideal meditator.