The purpose of this set of practices is three fold:
- To develop the capacity and insight to recognize basic emotional reactions,
- To develop the insight and capacity to recognize the worlds generated by these reactions,
- To develop the insight and capacity to step out of their thrall.
User beware
- The aim of these practices is to clear out the undergrowth that prevents you from knowing experientially what you are. If you take them seriously, they will clear out that undergrowth with a certain ruthlessness.
- These are not easy practices. Engage them only if you are serious about changing how you experience life.
- You should have at least one year of basic meditation and a healthy dose of meditation on death and impermanence.
- These practices challenge unspoken assumptions about how you relate to life, to the people in your life and to yourself. They may bring up old memories and unwanted feelings. It is a good idea to check in with your teacher from time to time.
Undertaking
This series is based on the six realms, gods, titans, humans, animals, hungry ghosts, and the denizens in hell. Each of the next six months is dedicated to one of the realms, beginning with the god realm. At the beginning of each month, read or listen to a description of the realm. See the list of sources at the end of this article.
To follow the sequence, do one practice session of at least 30 minutes a day. 45-60 minutes is better. For the first third of your practice time, rest attention on the coming and going of the breath. For the second third, do the six realm practice. For the last third, rest attention on the breath again.
Order
Most classical presentations start with the hell realm, the solidified end of the solidification spectrum, and then work with each realm in sequence, moving to progressively less solidified. In this set of practices, however, you are working as much with the relationships among the realms, how they reinforce, mirror, or flip into each other. Thus, even though I present them in terms of increasing solidification, starting with the god realm, it probably makes little difference where you start or in what order you practice them. What is important is that you do each realm.
For example, when one student, a highly volatile and aggressive head hunter, started on the realms, he related to the titan and the hell realms very easily. He wanted to work on those. He dismissed the other realms as being irrelevant to his difficulties, with himself, his work and his family. At first he resented my insistence that he work with each realm. A few months later, he came to appreciate that all six realms were relevant: he could be blissfully out of touch with others, he was constantly looking for satisfaction in his life, he could see where he went on automatic pilot, and even had to acknowledge his need for attention and recognition, a factor that contributed to his volatility.
Most classical presentations start with the hell realm, the solidified end of the solidification spectrum, and then work with each realm in sequence, moving to progressively less solidified. In this set of practices, however, you are working as much with the relationships among the realms, how they reinforce, mirror, or flip into each other. Thus, even though I present them in terms of increasing solidification, starting with the god realm, it probably makes little difference where you start or in what order you practice them. What is important is that you do each realm.
For example, when one student, a highly volatile and aggressive head hunter, started on the realms, he related to the titan and the hell realms very easily. He wanted to work on those. He dismissed the other realms as being irrelevant to his difficulties, with himself, his work and his family. At first he resented my insistence that he work with each realm. A few months later, he came to appreciate that all six realms were relevant: he could be blissfully out of touch with others, he was constantly looking for satisfaction in his life, he could see where he went on automatic pilot, and even had to acknowledge his need for attention and recognition, a factor that contributed to his volatility.
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