sunyatisunya
04 May 2009, 01:20 AM
Do I make crappy threads? Or is it just that there's no one around much?
Anyway - I was just reading from my copy of the Vijnana Bhairava where Swami Lakshmanjoo details how each dharana is accomplished properly. With a dharana that utilizes fixed staring on an immediate [close] object, he mentioned that his Guru, Swami Mahatabakak, used this once at a dinner invitation. He and Lakshmanjoo were seated and in front of them was a young girl. They were all waiting for tea to be served. Swami Mahatabakak fixed his gaze on the girl and, as Lakshmanjoo says, "went inside" and was "no where to be found".
I love that story because it shows how even a recognized Master in a lineage [apparently] practices the same techniques which we all must use. It's very humbling!
My question, for those who might know, is why this has to be done? Do you think it was merely illustrative for his student [Lakshmanjoo]? When he came out he told him that he had used that technique. Or is it that one has to continually immerse oneself in that state throughout the entire lifetime, continually re-realizing it? I think this is hinted at in Swami Lakshmanjoo's commentary on the Shiva Sutras - that some aspirants must by necessity keep this realization lively, not falling back into illusion, until they drop the body.
http://www.universalshaivafellowship.org/usf/images/photos/masters_02.jpg Swami Mahatabakak in the center, Swami Lakshmanjoo on his left [our right].
Anyway - I was just reading from my copy of the Vijnana Bhairava where Swami Lakshmanjoo details how each dharana is accomplished properly. With a dharana that utilizes fixed staring on an immediate [close] object, he mentioned that his Guru, Swami Mahatabakak, used this once at a dinner invitation. He and Lakshmanjoo were seated and in front of them was a young girl. They were all waiting for tea to be served. Swami Mahatabakak fixed his gaze on the girl and, as Lakshmanjoo says, "went inside" and was "no where to be found".
I love that story because it shows how even a recognized Master in a lineage [apparently] practices the same techniques which we all must use. It's very humbling!
My question, for those who might know, is why this has to be done? Do you think it was merely illustrative for his student [Lakshmanjoo]? When he came out he told him that he had used that technique. Or is it that one has to continually immerse oneself in that state throughout the entire lifetime, continually re-realizing it? I think this is hinted at in Swami Lakshmanjoo's commentary on the Shiva Sutras - that some aspirants must by necessity keep this realization lively, not falling back into illusion, until they drop the body.
http://www.universalshaivafellowship.org/usf/images/photos/masters_02.jpg Swami Mahatabakak in the center, Swami Lakshmanjoo on his left [our right].