Lesson 92 - Q&A – The Star

From: Yogani
Date: Thu Jan 22, 2004 4:56pm

New Members: It is recommended you read from the beginning of the web
archive, as previous lessons are prerequisite to this one. The first
lesson is, "Why This Discussion?"

Q: I have meditated for the past 10 years. I would say that I was
never really good at it. I felt that way because I was easily
distracted during meditation by thoughts. With that in mind, it was
a hit or miss as to whether I meditated or not. In other words, not
a daily practice. More like 3 - 4 times a week.

Prior to joining your group, I was told how to do Yoni Mudra. I
wasn't really doing it right, but the first two times I saw this
beautiful circle with a star in the middle. I did not know at that
time that it was something that would happen after doing Yoni
Mudra. A couple days after seeing it, I received a flyer in the
mail from the Self Realization Fellowship and on the flyer was the
exact thing I saw. I had not seen it again even with trying Yoni
Mudra.

So now fast forward. I joined your group. I really liked the fact
that the thoughts that come are ok. Just keep going and go back to
the mantra. I felt like maybe I was doing it right before and that
my expectation was off. I've committed to doing the practice twice
a day. I wanted to keep the "time line" in mind so that I didn't
rush through this. So I added the Advanced Practices slowly. I
haven't really had any rush of kundalini energy like some of the
people, but I decided to keep practicing.

This morning I tried the Yoni Mudra for the 1st time since joining
your group. As soon as I started, I saw a bunch of crazy lights. I
just watched and kept doing it. Then came the circles with the star
in the middle. There was a bright circle with a dark circle
inside. In the middle was the star. The star would fade in and
out. I didn't want it to go away. I went into my meditation and it
did leave.

My question is, what's the star all about? Why do I want to see it
so badly when I don't even know what it is all about? I know it is
part of the process but how and why is not known. Will I see it
when I meditate or only during Yoni Mudra? Is there something I can
do to retain the star during meditation? What made it come during
Yoni Mudra? Am I supposed to do something with the star?


A: The simple procedure of meditation doesn't mind thoughts at all,
or anything else. It is the art of gentle persuasion, letting the
mantra refine to pure bliss consciousness. The mind goes to stillness
easily when we give up the fight with thoughts and just favor the
mantra naturally at deeper levels whenever we become aware we are off
it. This is the way in.

On seeing the star, it is a natural outcome of purifying the sushumna
(spinal nerve) and opening the third eye. It was mentioned in the
lesson on yoni mudra kumbhaka that the attention will sooner or later
be drawn out beyond the point between the eyebrows. This is an
extension of the sushumna beyond the body. At the end of the sushumna
are the infinite realms of bright white light. They are seen as a
bright star in the beginning. The colors ringed around the star are
the inside of the sushumna. You are looking out from the inside, so
you are seeing the inside of the sushumna in your body, and the end
of the sushumna off in the distance, which is the star. You are
looking through the tunnel of the sushumna, seeing "the light at the
end of the tunnel," as they say. Inside the tunnel, we are literally
a rainbow of light, beginning with dark red at the bottom and ending
with blue and violet at the top. You have heard the expression, "She
has a heart of gold." Well, we all have hearts of gold. We just need
some housecleaning to see it. That is the outer ring you are seeing.

Some of the most graphic and beautiful descriptions of the inside of
the sushumna are presented by Norman Paulsen in his book "Sacred
Science." Mr. Paulsen is one of the few remaining direct disciples of
Paramahansa Yogananda, the famed yogi and author of "Autobiography of
a Yogi." In his book, Mr. Paulsen discusses a more intricate form of
spinal breathing. There are a variety of approaches to spinal
breathing, different styles. The approach to spinal breathing we use
in these lessons is chosen for its simplicity and known
effectiveness. Each person is free to choose, so different styles of
practice are honored here.

The sacred diagram, "Sri Yantra," is also a representation of the
inner reality of humanity -- concentric circles of divine feminine
energy forming a tunnel leading to the final union of shiva and
shakti in the center. When we do spinal breathing we are joining
these two energies everywhere inside the sushumna, and in every part
of the nervous system.

This is one of the few instances in life where "tunnel vision" has
some positive connotations to it.

What are we to do with this star when we see it, and a rising
awareness of the sushumna tunnel that often goes with it? It is an
important question you raise. Yes, we are naturally attracted to the
star. It is "heaven." It is where we go when we die. Reports of the
tunnel and white light are common among those who have had a near
death experience. The tunnel is the way by which we have come into
this earthly existence as well. Now you can see why spinal breathing
is so important in our practice. We are clearing our highway to
heaven.

But it isn't time to leave yet! Therein lies the answer to the
question: What do we do about the star? You will get different
answers from different people on this question. There is a lot of hub-
bub about it.

The answer in these lessons is, we don't do much with the star. We
let the experience of it evolve naturally, just as we do with
everything coming up as a result of our practices. As the star comes
up we regard it as any other part of our inner workings and go back
to the practice we are doing. It is, after all, just another feature
of our spiritual anatomy, like nadis, chakras, and the like.
Everything in heaven and earth is contained within us. We don't have
to go anywhere to be what we already are. If our ecstasy inside or
outside practices draws us into the star, then this is just fine.
Whatever happens there is part of our experience of divine expansion.
If our ecstasy draws us elsewhere in our spiritual anatomy, that is
fine too. If we are in practices, we easily favor the practice we are
doing, like always. We don't get all hung up on this or that
experience that may come up. If we are not in practices and we see
something happening in our spiritual anatomy -- let's enjoy! In these
lessons we are yogis and yoginis first, and tourists second. It is
fine to enjoy the scenery when we are outside practices. There will
be plenty for us to see. While inside practices, we stick to the easy
job of favoring the practice we are doing.

On this earth we are in the business of putting our nervous system in
good working spiritual order. That is what we are here for. This can
only be done by continuing to nudge the nervous system every day to
higher levels of functioning. As soon as we become fixated on any
particular aspect of our spiritual anatomy, we may be doing so at the
expense of the overall enlightenment project. For this reason, we do
well to consider all the inner mechanics and experiences to be going
on "under the hood" as we zoom along on our road of advanced yoga
practices to enlightenment.

Let's go back to our analogy of taking a trip to California. Let's
suppose we are building ourselves a road to California. One that will
enable us to have easy access to come and go as we please. As our
road under construction gets close enough to Los Angeles, we will see
the bright lights shining off in the distance. We might be tempted to
stop working on the road and just run across country to the lights of
LA. Doing that, we end up in LA, leaving an unfinished road outside
town somewhere. Not that LA needed another road anyway, but it is
just an analogy. Sooner or later we will have to go back and finish
that road. LA is not completely LA until we can come and go as we
please. Like that, heaven is not completely heaven until we can come
and go as we please. For that, we need a fully purified nervous
system.

Enlightenment is not about running off to heaven and leaving an
unpurified nervous system behind that we will have to come back to
and finish later in another life. It is about doing the work of
completely purifying the nervous system. Then we have it all, become
it all, heaven, earth, the cosmos, LA, everything. Then we become an
expression of heaven on earth, and can do much for others who are
expressions of heaven also, just needing a good housecleaning to
realize it. So, it is not about going off into the star. It is about
bringing the star in here, into the earth plane. That we do by
purifying and opening the nervous system.

As Jesus said, "You are the light of the world."

So, if you are seeing the star or having ecstasy reaching out beyond
the point between the eyebrows, go there as part of your normal
spinal breathing. It will add a lot to your practice. If you see the
star or have ecstasy extending out beyond the point between the
eyebrows during yoni mudra kumbhaka, just be there easily during
kumbhaka as the instructions say. Don't try and hang on to it. A
natural purification and connection is occuring. Just let it happen.
Keep in mind that we are working to purify our nervous system here on
earth. That is what we are doing in meditation, spinal breathing,
kumbhaka, bandhas, mudras, and all the rest. Enjoy the bliss of
heaven when it kisses you. Bring it back into your body naturally in
practices. Remember, the work we are doing is here in this earth
form. What we accomplish here we will take with us wherever we go
when we leave. This nervous system is the gateway. If we attend to
that, everything else will take care of itself.

It has been said that the angels in heaven are a bit jealous of us
mortal human beings. Why? Because on this plane of existence we have
the nervous system readily available to purify, and the motivation
(mortality) to do something about it. It is much easier to do that
work here on earth than in heaven. So the angels are a bit jealous.
They are waiting for their turn to do what we can do here and now --
advanced yoga practices. So, before we go running off to heaven,
let's make the best of our opportunity here and now. Heaven will be
there when it is our time to go. The more we can purify our nervous
system here and now, the easier it will be for us later on.

There is a tendency in some approaches to get into some particular
vision. To have that vision means everything. It doesn't have to be
like that. The manifestation of truth won't be exactly the same for
everyone. So, picking a specific vision to strive for could be a
mistake. Maybe some will never see a tunnel or star. Maybe they just
zoom through at some point and it is all pure white light. Or maybe
some other kinds of colors, and then the white light. Maybe no white
light, and just more and more ecstasy, until one day, boom! And white
light is everywhere inside and outside the body. It can happen many
different ways, depending on the unique purification process going on
in each person. No one can tell how it should be for every person.
For this reason we don't worry much about visions in these lessons.
We do the practices every day that we know encourage the nervous
system to purify and open naturally. The experiences will be whatever
they will be. If we keep clearing the highway to heaven, there can be
no doubt that we will arrive in the best shape, and have the
everlasting ability to come and go as we please.

A vision is not the big payoff in yoga. Eternal freedom in
enlightenment is!

The guru is in you.

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