Or How I Stopped Worrying and Learned to Love Shunayata.
I came out of meditation a couple days ago, having had an extraordinary experience. During meditation I had the sense that the boundaries of ‘self’ had dissolved, and my being was just part of a vast expanse of space. I felt completely ’empty’ but it was a blissful state of emptiness. I felt totally liberated from everything that had up till now kept me from entering this selfless, blissful *S*P*A*C*E*.
I had the sense that I had gone beyond the need to calm myself, to overcome addiction, overcome craving and aversion or difficult mental states. I know through my own practice that meditation does all that for you, but I now know you can also go beyond that to really liberated states of experience that are not about ‘suffering’, but about bliss, going beyond the confines of the body and the ‘self’, into yes, emptiness, but a joyful kind of emptiness. This is dharma practice outside of Buddhist institutions, outside of religion or even ‘spirituality’. I became an Intranaught. I entered intra-space, not inner or outer, but ‘throughout.’ The ‘naught’ (‘nothing’) refers to the Buddhist approach to attaining non-dual experience, through anatta, or ‘non-self.’
I attribute the attainment of this state to using a ‘mixed method’ of meditation practice. I began with listening to a 45-minute composition by French composer Fabrice Liut on Insight Timer, called “Meditation to Flow Away.” Like most of Liut’s compositions, it was complex, multi-layered, even coarse and challenging in places. But it put me in the right state of mind to begin silent meditation on the breath.
I began with dhammakaya meditation, a tantric Theravada practice popular in Northern Thailand, in which one focuses one’s attention on the breath at the center of the torso, just above the navel, and chants ‘Samma Araham’. I focus at the solar plexus (just below the sternum), which is the Third Chakra in Yoga practice. I have been experimenting with this practice for a few weeks.
I have also been experimenting with combining Yoga and Buddhist meditation forms. I found that just doing traditional shamatha taught in many Buddhist traditions squelches my energy too much, leaving me dull, listless, and depressed. There isn’t any Buddhist meditaiton practice I know of that addresses the energy of sitting meditation. (For more on this, see my previous article in Engage! “Just Sitting?”)
Yoga meditation involves working with the energy of the body located in seven energy centers from the Root-1st Chakra at the perineum; to the Second Chakra around the groin and sexual organs; to the Third Chakra, the solar plexus; the Fourth Chakra at the heart centre; the Fifth Chakra at the throat; the Sixth Chakra located between the eyes, called the Third Eye; and the Seventh Chakra, at the crown of the head.
How I combine these two methods is I use the breath to bring up energy from the root chakra up through the chakras at the center of the body to the heart and head, to the crown chakra. With the in-breath, I draw the energy up through the “channels” in the center of the body (which is actually the pairs of the vegus nerve) to the head, focusing on the breath the entire way, but especially focusing on the energy of the breath. Some teachers call this ‘riding the breath.’
Then as I exhale, I focus on the outbreath, on the relaxation and emptying of ‘the breath-energy channel’ back down to the root chakra. The cycles of inbreath and outbreath moves the energy of the breath upward and downward through the body, creating a natural sense of energy, buoyancy, and joy.
It was during this session that the sense of ‘self’, felt as the boundaries ‘self’, dissolved. This is not an orthodox Buddhist practice, and it’s not one that anyone ever taught me, or that I might have read on the web. It’s a practice that I discovered myself through my own practice experience.
However, I have read a treatise that confirms my practice experience. I found a book on the connection between the energy chakras and meditation on the breath by a 20th century Thai Theravada monk named Piyadassi Bhikku. He wrote a book, now online in English, called Vimuttidhamma; from Chakra to Dhammachakra, (Thai, 1997, English 2011) It’s a guide to practice via the Satipatthana Sutta. As you can see by the illustration, the technique builds on the energy flow of meditation. It integrates the chakras, the energy centers of the body, with Buddhist techniques on the jhanas. The chart below is one of many similar illustrations in the book, showing how Buddhist jhana meditation relates to the practice of activating the energy chakras.
I recorded the composition “Intranaught” (above) as a tribute to this practice, so that others may try it for themselves. First, listen to instrumental music that focuses your energy, or practice chanting or kirtan. You can also listen to a short guided meditation. This short, ‘warm-up’ session helps to calm and focus the mind-body on meditation. During the listening or chanting, focus on the breath at the center of the body, or solar plexus. Then go into silent meditation on the breath, focusing on the energy of the breath as it flows upwards and downwards through the chakra centers of the body. Do each kind of practice for as long as you need to. I would suggest doing several short sessions of 15 to 20 minutes each; but whatever works for you. When I don’t feel the need to focus on the upward-downward flow of energy (e.g. when I’m ‘winded’), I “rest on the breath” by focusing on the breath at the center of the torso (Dhammakaya) at the solar plexus. Even if I don’t have the ‘boundless non-self’ experience, I have a meditation session that is more focused, engaged and energized. I gain a sense of positive energy and joy. I come out of the meditation feeling alert, mindful and awake.
