When people’s eyes are open, they see landscape in the outer world.
When people’s eyes are closed, they see landscape with their minds eye.
People spend hours looking at outer landscapes, but there is just as much to see in inner landscapes”.
Michael and Nancy Samuel
I searched for god and found only myself. I searched for myself and found only god.
- Sufi proverb
It is so often that we try to search something outside us, where as, all that is, lies inside us. It is just that we need to get aware of it. That search could be for the god within us or for anything that we aspire for, from within.
Often, we come across terms like meditation, self acceptance, introspection, internal focusing, spirituality, and many more in today’s generation. The origin of this is not in today. It is in those ages where monks used to spend many years in search of what is deep inside. As time passed by, the same could be achieved in certain months of deep practice of yoga. Modern world has viewed a lot of techniques like pranic healing, reiki, hypnosis, and many more for the same.
We do wonder, as to how by going within, the masters got evolved? What is it that they are all trying to search within? What is it inside that is so connected to what is outside? Is there a way where we can get in touch with our inner being so that we are aware about the deepest aspect of ourselves?
A basic fact is that we have lot of thoughts and emotions but when we actually see deep within behind these superficial feelings there are perceptions and sensations completely unknown and non human. Aim is to become aware about such deeper vital phenomena and to get started on healing path.
‘Know thyself, heal thyself’
The vital phenomenon reveals to us through vital sensation and vital energy pattern.
Now, what is this vital sensation?
The word sensation comes from the Latin word “sensus” which means “the faculty of perceiving”. It is nothing but an experience that is present in each and every cell of us and also represents an entire pattern in the universe.
A sensation is experienced at various levels – mind, body and also at a level deeper where in both the mind and body are connected. At mind, they are called emotional sensations; at body they are called physical sensations. At a level beyond the two, is the level of the vital sensation. A vital sensation is deeper and an inseparable part of our being. As written in the book ‘A Journey into the Human Core,’ by Dr. Dinesh Chauhan, a vital sensation “cannot be expressed just in the form of words or thoughts or other separate units but it comes as a single unit. By understanding the vital sensation, we can understand our feelings, perceptions, fears and associated reactions. It is important to realize that the vital sensation is not merely a word but is a whole process. It is the whole process of something, which is happening beyond all systems, beyond all thoughts, perceptions and feelings. It has a definite pattern. It is a live phenomenon happening at that moment of time. It is not just a past experience. It is a complete package of something experienced beyond the mind and body with a definite pattern.………”
How to get in touch with this vital sensation?
Is it not this which we are trying to do through meditation, yoga or by some other means? How can we get to that level which is beyond the mind and body where both are connected? Many times, while trying to get in touch with our inner self, we encounter a certain level of conscious resistance. We do get started but then we find that there is a lot of chattering of thoughts going on. It is like when we try to wipe the dust gathered on the table. Initially a lot of dust gets on us, and then slowly it settles, making an easy way for it to get wiped. Does this not happen when we try to get within ourselves? Yes, it does, especially when the process is at the beginning level.
How to get rid of this conscious resistance?
The answer to this question lies in the technique of internal witnessing. With this technique, a connection can be made with that very vague vital sensation. It is a way with which one can reach the level where the mind and body cease to exist individually, rather they exist together. This method avoids the use of conscious reasoning and analysis of the feelings and emotions that arise in the process. Hence the constant noise made by the thoughts, reasons, and previous knowledge is calmed down. Thus the journey within is more silent, free of noise. In this silence, one can listen to the inner voice of the experience which breathes in each and every human-cell. Being aware of this experience will give appropriateness to it and to the reactions associated with it. An attempt made to understand this vital experience will also help a human being to understand the fears, anxieties, dreams, feelings, perceptions and reactions associated with it. Thus a clear match will now be made between this internal experience and all the delusions that, that human mind goes through.
For example let us consider a common feeling of loneliness in three different individuals. The first has its root in the internal experience of having no identity. The second is coming from a delusion of being forced out and hence feel lonely. The third has it because of the perception that he is not accepted as a part of the group. Though everyone has a feeling of being alone at the level of emotion, the vital sensation for all three is different and individualistic. The awareness of this very vague sensation will give rise to accuracy to all the feelings, thoughts, delusions, perceptions, sensations and reactions attached to that experience. That means if the first person becomes aware of the identity crisis within, he can become a neutral observer to the feeling of loneliness. When the second person becomes aware of the sensitivity of forced out within him, he would no longer feel lonely without such a situation actually existing in his surrounding. When the third person becomes aware that it is only his own perception of not being part of the group, he will gain an adequacy to his feeling of loneliness.
Hence we see, as to how by internally witnessing this vital sensation, we not only become aware of it but also come to a peace with everything in us. It’s the difference between viewing yourself through a three mega pixel camera and a twelve mega pixel camera.
We now consider the steps of this technique:
STEP 1: TO INVITE
Close your eyes and focus on the problem that is bothering you the most at this point of time. The focus could be on your physical or emotional complaint; personal, professional or family stress; past incidence that has had a deep impact on you; on the worst nightmare, dream or delusion experienced by you. It could be anything that is bothering you in the now. Continue to do this until the entire situation comes up clearly in front of your closed eyes. Witness the situation as complete as possible and as intense as possible. You will know that the maximum intensity is reached, when the body will give some sensation, energy response to this whole process.
STEP 2: TO FOCUS
Focus on this invited situation till you relive the whole situation as it had exactly happened. Experience that whole situation again and just try to make a note of the bodily experience in it; see what is happening deep within the body. Once the whole situation is in front of your eyes in its complete totality, just be with this experience. Be with the whole picture and not just a part of it. Just see what bodily sensation you feel when you imagine or visualize this situation. Do not interpret or analyze anything and just be with it. Let the analysis, conscious self-lecture and intellectual thoughts just pass. Feel this experience till you are very sure about what you are experiencing. It might be a little uncomfortable feeling, but the entire goal is to be with it, without judging it and analyzing it. Let the body give the answer and not the intellect or the mind. Also do not let the mind tell you what is important and is not important out of the whole experience. Be with the body’s experience which could be a word, picture or phenomenon. This is the vital sensation that is being discussed right since the beginning. Feel the experience to its maximum. Focus on it as a complete totality and complete experience, not in parts.
STEP 3: TO RELEASE
The third step is the final and the most important part of the technique. This step starts only when you are sure that this is the whole experience and nothing else is coming up from the body. Here, you are to witness the vague sensation of the body till it releases completely. This happens automatically. What one is to do is only be with the body till it views the exit of the whole experience. Meaning there by, in the 1ststep you just invited the vital sensation. In the 2nd step you focused on it to its fullest and became aware of it. In the 3rd step this vital sensation actually heals by itself. This is the response of the inner being to the 1st and 2nd steps taken by you. The healing that occurs is just automatic, effortless and effective. So, what one is supposed to do is just remain as a passive viewer till this action is completed by the body.
Practicing this technique regularly and with your entire being can actually bring a lot of collective awareness of your own self leading to what we call holistic cure.
The wonder of the process of internal witnessing is that it can be done by oneself without any external assistance. There is possibility to keep at bay all the resistance from the conscious mind, as all is experienced at body level. The healing takes place as an auto response without any intellectual effort. Finally it makes one aware of the vital experience that ticks in each and every cell of the body. It brings an acceptance to the positive and negative flaws that we all possess. A comfort level towards the bodily sensation is achieved and then the focus is more on strengthening the positive aspects and reducing the flaws as far as possible.
The benefit of getting aware about such inner process and self has proven to be very promising; there is a shift in a person’s attitude towards life, there is a lot of clarity to the various happening of life, there is a presence of grace in his living, person finds his place in the whole structure of universe which makes him at peace with himself and his surrounding; his life becomes blissful existence altogether.
Every seekers (patients) details will always remain 100% confidential and will never be disclosed