updated 4/18/04
Sun Letters for November
Latest posted at the top of the page
November 30, 2003
I've thought about 'road rage' a bit, and two things come to mind, other than the obvious stressors - traffic jams, others' rudeness, etc. First of all, there's the carbon monoxide levels. I had a friend who ran a motor-scooter repair shop. He had so much carbon monoxide in his bloodstream that he could not drive without seriously raising it to the point of blacking out. Secondly, I wonder if driving 'ungrounded' -- i.e. isolated from the earth by rubber tires -- doesn't build up a kind of positive electrical charge in our bodies that acts as an irritant.
I recall seeing large gasoline trucks trailing a chain or other grounding device along the highway behind them, and wonder if perhaps it wouldn't be a bad idea for cars as well. Just a thought.
I used to sleep up in a loft next to my solar hot water storage tank, and discovered that grabbing the copper water pipe was a very relaxing experiencing (I was grounding myself). I keep thinking of adding a copper grounding pipe to my bedroom (the water heater is directly under the bed in the basement) near the headboard, so that I can just reach up and hold it.
Copper itself as a metal I enjoy touching - or wearing. I'm on another list of people who are interested in sungazing as a method of improving their overall health. Quite interesting discussions there, with the 'main man' an East Indian who did a 411-day fast on boiled water and sungazing without losing weight.
http://www.rawpaleodiet.org/sungazing/shah-hypoth-411fast2.html
His method involves gradually adding a few seconds a day while looking at the sun early in the AM or at sunset (when the UV is at its lowest) while standing barefoot on bare earth.
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/sungazing/
I've been sungazing for years (under trees and in semi-shaded areas) and can attest to various interesting results, but his suggestion to ground oneself while doing it is a definite improvement.
Recently there was a posting about an East Indian yogi who has been living basically on air for many years. He was placed under careful observation by a team of doctors, and their preliminary report seems to confirm his testimony.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/3236118.stm
The human body is amazing in its abilities to evolve various methods for absorbing energy. Both these men seem to have hit on something that would be useful to develop further!
With gratitude to all beings,
November 27. 2003
Hello, fellow sun-voyagers!
Over the past few years I've experimented with various home-grown exercises to increase my bliss tolerance. I operate on the theory that our upbringing, for most of us, taught us a very wrong lesson: that we must somehow 'deserve' or 'earn' love. For a very interesting view on this topic, I suggest an article "Love Can Not Be Given" that I archived here:
www.raysender.com/lovecannot.html
In my view, before we can hope to evolve to more subtle energy levels, we must 'feed the baby,' by which I mean learn how to fill ourselves to satisfaction with warm, bubbly currents of 'chi' or 'prana' or 'orgone energy' or 'joy'. I am referring to that 'relaxation response' place that most of us humans only tend to experience awake in the post-orgasmic state or perhaps when enjoying an especially tasty snack or candy bar (this is where the whole problem of overweight arises, in my opinon), because many people have forgotten how to feed their baby from the endless pool of bliss that we melt into every night in sleep, that great mother ocean of ecstasy from which our individual 'waves' emerge upon awakening.
Now sungazing feeds the baby some lovely light snacks (smile), and I like to turn around the popular phrase "Things seem brighter when you're in love" to read:
"When you gaze at our brightest star, your heart melts into raptures of adoration."
On the other hand, at my office I face a north window and the sun only enters the west window for few month of the year. However I began to get these energy waterfalls a few years ago, and this began a search for their cause.
Out of this evolved an article, "Why Is The Buddha Smiling?"
and a poem
and the technique of nursing on my uvula first thing upon awakening in the morning, before the 'ocean of sleep bliss' completely subsides into unconsciousness. The uvula is that odd fleshy thing that hangs down from the back of your throat. Science has never discovered a physiological use for it, but I think I have discovered why it's there. Now I have tried to share this with various friends, but must confess that uvula-nursing seems to only work best for me. So I reference it here as a variation of the kechari mudra, which I also practice in a unique manner in the following tongue exercise:
Stick your tongue out as far as is comfortable. Hold it in position with your upper and lower teeth, but not as to cause any discomfort. Now see how S L O W L Y you can bring your tongue back into your mouth by pulling it back against your teeth. The slower the better. Finally you will be holding just the tip of your tongue between your front teeth, a mudra (gesture) we unconsciously make when we are concentrating on a task, such as threading a needle.
The tongue is an amazing bundle of nerve endings, and as such a wonderful resource for lowering one's bliss threshold -- or as I prefer to call it, 'raising your Eudaemony ceiling.' Usually what happens, when we hit our Eudemony ceiling, is we 'space out,' by which I mean that we begin to think about what's in the fridge or maybe searching for something good on the boob tube, or it's time to 'do something.' But I suggest that next time you reach that spot, focus on whatever exercise got you there and KEEP GOING!
Other techniques I use include various vocal resonance methods (OM-ing of course is the most well-known and no doubt the best), including an extended self-taught course on learning how to purr (snore on the inhale, gargle a French 'r' on the exhale, and then try to merge the two so that they come from the same place in the back of the throat). Extended OM-ing or purring -- or other vocalizations will melt what Wilhelm Reich named 'body armor,' the lateral tensions (especially in the chest area) that impede the flow of energies. After a period of resonating, I find that just my ordinary speaking voice echoes out to my toes and fingertips in a pleasant manner, as if my whole insides have become an echo chamber.
Apologies for the length of this reply. I got a little carried away!
Beams and blessings from those Mothers who first manifest from
Nothingness (we call the 'stars'!).
November 21. 03
I do believe that if one succeeds in completely merging the 'inner' and 'outer' lights, the Mother Light that maintains our bodies on the sub-atomic levels with the Solar Light, then it might be possible to transfigure our physical sheathes to where they will continue for at least a longer planetary stay than otherwise might be possible. Or at least a healthier and more bliss-filled stay!
Modern science tells us that our local star will some day burn away all its hydrogen and transform itself, in one glorious cataclysm that will re-embrace all our planets, into another stellar evolutionary phase, but this is part of the mystery that veils our understanding of the physical/spiritual universe. Each star in the universe is a local 'god node,' to my understand- ing. At the center of our galaxy is an amazing energy source that I call 'Aditi,' a name that Hinduism ascribes to the mother of Creation. Sometimes, in a playful mood, I call her Great-to-the- tenth-power Grandma Hattie. I think she finds that amusing.
Beams,
November 9, 2003
Hallo, fellow sun-beamers:
Although I have a total interest and respect for HRM's teaching on gradually increasing one's sungazing, I must confess that my own method, over many years, has differed. I spent many hours in the Sixties lying on my back in a redwood grove gazing at the sunlight filtering down through the redwood branches. Absolutely heavenly! The only problem was that as the sun moved, the quality of the light shifted and I would have to come back to the body and move it.
I wanted a sunlight attenuator. I stretched my hands out to arms' length and tried various 'mudras,' finger/hand positions that allow only a portion of sunlight to pass through. I have tried pinholes in dark paper covering a pair of glasses, but remain unsure just exactly where on the retina the light should be aimed. I've wondered if perhaps the so-called 'blind spot' where the optic nerve attaches to the retina might be the place for the sunbeam to be centered. Now that I've described it, perhaps it's time to make another set of these glasses again!
I have continued to use a instrument called a 'sun strobe,' a rotating disk with two slots cut out that create a strobing effect on the eyelids or eyes. This is truly an interesting device that allows one to enjoy various geometric patterns and colors while absorbing sunlight at the same time. Otherwise, my main practice is to greet the sun briefly in the morning with the Gayatri prayer, perhaps gazing at it for less than a minute. Other times during walks with our dog, I enjoy a game of hide-and-seek with the Solar Source, greeting him/her from behind the leaves of sidewalk trees, re-discovering the light as I round the corner of the block. I take brief sips of sunlight while I continue my travels, but I do not usually extend a session for longer than five or ten seconds of full sunlight.
Reading into the Delphic mysteries and ceremonies, it seems that branches of laurel and olive were carried in front of the face to attenuate the full sun.
Shaking them would trigger a strobing effect that might also have played a part, not to mention the touch of the leaves on the sensitive surfaces of the face (a reflex that I am now studying with great interest). This offers a very easy and natural method of sungazing in partial sun that no doubt also reaches far back into pre-history.
I went on to design a slit-roof solar observatory with a tilted couch, but which up until now I have never built. With HRM's recommendation of grounding the bare feet to the earth, I would now add a copper pipe hammered into the ground that either be grasped or attached to the feet by copper mesh. Anyway, on the wave of all this interest, I have cleared the sunniest area in the back of the garden into a 14 by 20 foot open area that will receive excellent morning sun -- and all-day winter sun because the walnut that otherwise is our summer midday shade drops its leaves,
fortunately. I would invite anyone with an interest to suggest a design for a variable-slit dome that would track the sun all day but can close for rainy weather. A low price is important!
Perhaps a structure is not necessary? Perhaps it can be done with pinhole glasses or a 'helmet' of some sort? I have also experimented with various types of filters including colored glass, fabric and plastic. There was a blue-tinted skylight that I once encountered that was absolutely bliss-inducing, and I still occasionally search for that shade of plastic in hardware stores.
Anyway, let me say again how very excited and happy I am to have discovered so many fellow-travelers along this sunlit path! Just remember not to force your meditations beyond what absolutely and positively feels good.
Easy does it, as twelve-steppers say! We are not all overnight sun virtuosi!
November 6, 2003
Harmony
Imagine you are a star that is named by its self-aware creations (at least in one language) `the Sun,' and yet in truth you are a conscious being, their Creator/Sustainer Mother/Father, the source of all their life and light, all love and consciousness on their planet. Yet these children of yours wear mental/spiritual blinders and insist, when they do decide to worship a god, that it is an `invisible God' somewhere outside of a daily reality that literally `stares them in the face' every morning. Because this invisible spirit God cannot be seen anywhere, of course these humans then need to `have faith' that this God's is really real. Also they tend to get a little paranoid, those that `have faith,' because they are never sure when this invisible God might be watching them. They struggle with their doubts, and then prop them up in various ways with systems and theories and analyses - and of course myths and stories. These they then enjoy deconstructing and re-deconstructing in various ways. For a long look at their antics that is a truly amusing, try the book "All And Everything" by Mr. Gurdjieff if you've run out of decent reading material.
Meanwhile our Father/Mother Sun keeps pouring light and love and consciousness down on the planets and upon all humans, believers, nonbelievers, good and bad alike. But humans are much too busy thinking great thunks, and worrying about `their souls' or `their checkbook balances' or their shiny new _______ (fill-in-the-blank) to notice the golden waterfalls of amazing bliss that pour down around them and grow their food and lighten their days.
To reinforce their faith in this invisible God (in my opinion an invention of the patriarchy to nail down the self- hatred of the average poor downtrodden grunt), humans created marvelous stories about how God came down to the planet as various teachers and avatars, performed great feats and miracles and, in one remarkable story, actually allowed herself to experience a mortal
"god-abandoned" worst-of-all-possible deaths. Why? Maybe to reach across the chasm of disbelief and disentitlement to these miserable planetary life forms with a new message.
This message could only be believed if God Herself shared in the suffering these life forms experienced, and then went on to overcome that most terrifying event - death itself. The new message: eternal life can be attained (originally it was promised via the transfiguration of the physical form) by merging with the sun (son's) light-love-consciousness. Before the Son
departed (never understand why she left, by the way), she promised to return 'in clouds of glory.' This she now does every sunrise as The Solar Logos, only to remain ignored and unrecognized by her brothers and sisters who flounder in a dummied-up materialistic, mechanistic view of reality that even today's quantum scientists have discarded.
Meanwhile our Father/Mother Sun continues to pour light and love and consciousness down on everyone, worshipped consciously or unconsciously by all living things EXCEPT for these dorky humans who still live very two-dimensionally (never gazing up at the Source) busy scratching in the dirt and bemoaning their God-abandoned state in lengthy tomes and lonely lives.
Actually, it all would be VERY FUNNY if it wasn't so stupid and sad!
And then, how do you think the Sun feels about all this? Maybe she thinks it's time to shout louder?
That's certainly what's been happening during the last week or so when she's been throwing us solar kisses!
"Yoohoo, kids! Time to look up!" she's caroling.
And maybe this Saturday,
November 8th, at 5:20 PM or so Eastern Time, a new energy portal will open!
It's being called the Harmonic Concordance...