“Whatever you people imagine, you will then see that at some point.” Sakar Murli 18/02/14
A series of exercises to enable individuals to access subtle worlds of wonder
Introduction
These experiential exercises were presented at a weekend workshop in Wilton NSW Australia by BKs Jaie Watts and Phillip Gough in February 2014.
The guiding inspiration from Bapdada
BapDada inspires us to be unlimited in our thinking and to enjoy the experience of being with Him in the subtle regions. The facilitators had this in mind, in designing the various activities.
We BKs are master creators and there is no limit to what we can experience with BapDada directing our thoughts towards perfection. We are inspired to use the laboratory of the mind to experience BapDada’s virtues and qualities.
Success was measured in a comprehensive evaluation of all activities during the weekend. A few comments:
I felt I had permission to experiment with these new ways of experiencing meditation. – IT specialist
This has opened up a whole new world for me. – a lawyer, aged over 70, attending his first meditation retreat.
Usually, when I come to a retreat, I’m busy writing notes, This time it was really interesting how I didn’t take notes but I feel I’ve learnt so much more about how I can meditate. – small business owner
1. Silent walk, focusing on one sense only
The participants were instructed to focus on one of the physical senses, as they walked through the lovely bush setting of the retreat centre. Each participant could choose to focus on sight, smell, hearing or touch – the feel of clothes on the skin and the sensation of the body moving through the air. After the group had walked slowly in silence for about 10 minutes, the facilitators asked for feedback so as to reassure participants that they were ‘on track’ with the exercise. The walk continued. All agreed that this exercise is a good way to focus the mind, especially if people find it difficult to meditate while sitting in silence.
2. So you can’t visualise?
Despite what individuals might think, they definitely have the ability to visualise images in their mind’s eye.
The facilitator:
“On the screen of your mind imagine a banana. Can you see it?
(All acknowledged they could). Good. Now peel it.
Can you see that happening? (All acknowledged they could.)
Good. Now imagine a lemon.
Take that lemon and cut it in half.
Can you see yourself doing that?
(All acknowledged they could.) Well done!
Now bite into a piece of that lemon!
Can you taste its bitterness?
(All acknowledged they could. Some faces screwed up).
Terrific!
Now imagine yourself outside your home.
Can you see yourself there? (All acknowledged they could).
Now see your best friend walking towards you.
Can you see your best friend? (All acknowledged they could.)
Good. How does this make you feel? (All said that it made them feel good.)
Okay, so you can all visualise and you can all taste and feel on a subtle level. That’s very good”.
3. ’Relocating’ the screen of the mind
Participants were asked to visualise an orange on the screen of their minds.
Then they were asked to point to where that image appeared to be. Most pointed in front of them, about 300mm away and slightly upwards at an angle from their eyes.
Participants were then asked to move the image 90 degrees to the left so that it was adjacent to their left ear. All could do this.
Participants were asked to move the image behind then and then adjacent to their right ear. All could do this.
Then participants were asked to rotate the image of the orange continuously around and around their heads.
All could do this and were surprised to find that they could.
4. Through the camera’s eye
Six pictures of identical cameras were attached at intervals to the walls inside a large hall. The participants were instructed to select a camera and stabilise in their mind’s eye the image of themselves as seen through that camera viewer. After doing this, they were then to move towards the camera while holding on to that image. The aim was to feel as if they were behind the camera looking through the camera viewer at themselves, as they approached. The facilitators suggested that for those who felt comfortable they could also aim to see the soul in the centre of their forehead.
Participants could move as slowly as they wanted to. (In fact, the slower one moves, the easier it is, generally, to hold that image on the screen of the mind.) When they were close up to the camera, they were to take time to absorb the image of their face and the soul, before turning, locating another camera, towards which they were to move, repeating the exercise. The facilitator determines the duration of the exercise, according to the level of focused attention of the participants.
5. Five-form traffic control
This is an exercise to do while sitting for traffic control. It is based on Baba’s drill of the 5 forms. Below are some suggestions but meditators can use their own creative abilities to vary it for utmost impact. The aim of the exercise is to create variety in what might have become a familiar drill. Variety is still the spice of life, even for experienced BKs. When there is interest in what one is doing, concentration is so much easier.
The five forms are as follows:
With Baba in soul world
Golden age experience
The worshipworthy form
Brahmin at the confluence age
Angel
The essence of this exercise is to experience each practise at a place ‘outside’ of the self. For example, when one visualises oneself in soul world, with or without Baba, just as you did in the exercise with the orange, move the visualisation some distance away, anywhere you wish, even to the other side of the world, if you like.
Or in a cupboard in the house where you live. Or down the road at the shopping centre. Get the idea?
Move it from inside your head to outside your head. This is where the benefit lies. What benefit? Try it and see what happens. Have fun. Enjoy yourself. Give yourself permission to experiment.
Baba has already given His permission. Go through the 5 forms, doing similar projections for each visualisation.
6. Six-consciousness walk
The participants were given a copy of the 6 images shown here. The facilitators explained how each image was to be used as a visualisation on the screen of their minds. Together the group went for a walk outside.
Image 1
The participants had to walk ‘as if‘ in a body of light. After 3 minutes the facilitator rings a bell, to indicate the change of focus to the next image.
Image 2
The facilitator’s instructions. Just imagine yourself sitting at a point some distance from here, as if you are in a cinema and you are watching our group projected on the screen as we now continue to walk along. The aim of the exercise is to feel as if one is in a cinema, watching as the following scenes play out.
Image 3
Participants continue walking while at the same time holding an image of the self, the soul, as a point of light in the centre of the forehead.
Image 4
Participants visualise themselves above the earth, as an angel, sending peace, love, bliss and such blessings onto the world and its inhabitants.
Image 5
The next consciousness is to see the self and the group ‘as if’ through a camera, positioned in the sky. They were to try and feel as if they were actually behind the camera, looking through the camera viewer. Instruction is given to zoom in and out with the camera and view the scene ‘as if’ through the camera’s viewer.
Image 6
The final consciousness to practise: While continuing to walk in a slow, relaxed fashion, focus the mind on Shiv Baba in soul world and, while walking, keep that image on the screen of the mind.
7. Experiencing personal drishti
All the participants were asked to stand and focus their eyes on the soul in the centre of the facilitator’s forehead. They were reminded that they wouldn’t be seeing with their physical eyes but on the ‘screen of their mind’. The facilitator explained that he was going to walk around the group, looking at the soul in the centre of each participant’s forehead. For the duration of the exercise the participants were to maintain their focus ‘in their mind’s eye’ on the soul of the facilitator, as he moved around the group.
Facilitators’ comments about the exercises
All the exercises were a gradual lead-in to the final exercise, ‘My perfect self and me’. The facilitators had observed and tuned into individuals’ responses, reassuring the group, moving at a comfortable pace without rushing, before proceeding to the next exercise.
On the Saturday afternoon and evening, the facilitators introduced the concept of ‘the perfect self’, which naturally raised many points of knowledge about the soul on its journey through time. Interest in listening to these points of knowledge seemed very high, perhaps because the participants had had their own individual experiences of themselves as souls. Once their curiosity had been aroused in an experiential way, it seemed that the points of knowledge helped to reinforce and clarify the underlying theory. In the learning process experience preceded theory.
The participants were asked to spend time, thinking about their perfect selves. They could churn using ‘spontaneous writing’, meditate on the subject and contemplate what their perfect self would be like.
Participants were asked to begin thinking about their perfect self on Sunday morning after a night’s sleep and especially when showering, as water often helps the creative process. As children, we are used to playing with imaginary friends and creating a world of play out of boxes, sticks, string and other handy objects. To a child that world is real. And indeed it is real. It’s a different kind of ‘real’ but real just the same. To an adult that is just imagination. Often this imaginary world is discouraged or disappears through not being supported or valued.
With these exercises, the aim is to reawaken our imaginations, to regain our power and give ourselves permission to create a subtle world, a subtle region where we can be with the highest self and with Baba, especially with Baba.
When we feel Baba’s presence, when we can feel his love and support, not just think about it, or churn it, but when we can feel it ‘as if‘ it’s real, our lives become easy. By keeping the experience of Baba with us, we are coloured by His beautiful, ever-loving company.
Experience the realness of Baba’s constant companionship by awakening and strengthening the creative power of your beautiful mind. After all, this is how we are creating a new Golden Age, but you knew that, didn’t you?
8. My perfect self and me
Prior to the exercise in meeting ‘the perfect self’, the facilitators encouraged the participants to revise concepts about the perfect self. This was with the aim of helping the participants feel familiar and comfortable with what they had experienced. In order to undertake this exercise they needed to feel they were free, that they had permission to be open to whatever they would experience.
Throughout the weekend the facilitators were models of reassurance and encouragement so that the participants were operating from a level of comfort which would enable them to be open to experiencing a new ‘real’.
In the exercise, the participants were to walk out into the luxurious gardens and bushland of the centre and locate their ‘perfect self’ some way off in the distance. Then slowly, very slowly, each was to walk towards their perfect self, all the time holding that external image in the mind, as each slowly walked towards it.
At about the halfway mark, they were to change the image for a few minutes and see themselves through the eyes of their perfect self, walking towards their perfect self. When they finally arrived at their perfect self (In some cases the perfect self was 100 metres or more away.), they were to interact with their perfect self, walking around it, looking into the eyes of their perfect self, engaging in conversation and so on.
Then they were to take their perfect self by the hand and walk around the grounds of the centre and spend some time together. After about half an hour a bell was to ring, signalling that they return to the pre-arranged meeting place.
Once the instructions were clarified, all assembled in a circle in the open air outside and the instruction was given: “Go and find your perfect self”. At this, all turned around and walked away from the circle slowly out into the parkland to find their perfect self. Eventually, half an hour or so later, according to the instructions, a bell was rung and they walked back to the prearranged meeting place.
One of the centre’s top chai makers had prepared chai for afternoon tea.
Sitting comfortably with a mug of divine hot chai, the participants shared their experiences with the group, if they felt comfortable to do so.
In the end, my perfect self sat on my lap and we merged. – student of naturopathy
After going into a garden, I met my four-year-old-self, wearing the pretty dress made for me by my mother. She asked me: ‘Why have you always put yourself down?’ – manager of a creative small business
I met and walked quietly with my perfect self, who said: ‘I will always be with you and will look after you’. – retired builder
Additional exercise with subtle self
Participants were instructed to walk in the awareness that they could see themselves already seated at the dining room table, in their angelic body, their body of light, and keep that image in their mind, as they silently walked to lunch.
Conclusion
Whether the participants shared or not, all agreed this exercise transported them into a new and worthwhile realm of experience. The facilitators had successfully tested their ideas that a wide range of individuals could experiment with meditation in this way with positive results. This became apparent in comments from the retreat centre staff who inquired as to whether this was a silence retreat. Participants entered a natural state of silence as a consequence of the exercises.
Visualisation, imagination or something else?
The strength of these exercises lies in being able to feel as if one has projected one’s consciousness outside of the body to the location of the imagined scene. One needs to have the feeling of being at the imagined scene.
For example, if I were to imagine myself outside my house, I could (a) ’see’ that scene on the screen of my mind or (b) feel ‘as if’ I were actually outside the house. This ‘as if’ process is like a springboard into other more exciting and fulfilling areas of experience to explore further.
It’s a different experience from projecting onto the screen of the mind.
In the context of thoughts creating reality, of thoughts having power over matter, the facilitators are curious to research further this different kind of ‘real’.
Through the portal, behind the veil
I move from this world of matter…..into the unlimited dimension…..of thought….and experience…..I locate the hidden entrance…..through which I can pass….with ease….and open the zip in the fabric of time and space..…into the no less real world of my beautiful mind…..and in this space….I create….a world of my choosing…..a world of love…..and of peace…..a harmonious world which exists beyond the darkness of a world that has lost itself…..has lost its vibrance….its colour….its joy.
I step through the portal…and behind the veil of illusion…..from the old limits…from self-inflicted constraints….of a mind that had become gross.…solidified….blinkered…blind to my potential….my creative mastery
Guided by the Supreme…the Unlimited….the Magician….I unlock the doors to magnificence….and walk into a sparkling new future….that holds no fears….no uncertainties….no shadows.
