When we walk or drive around the streets of our town, we get where we’re going because we can see the direction in which we’re heading. Even if we’re somewhere that we don’t know well and we get lost, we begin to build a map in our head that enables us to work our way around our landscape. In fact, I’ve heard of a travel writer who recommends becoming lost on purpose, as one of the best ways to learn how to get around a new city.
This experience of navigating the external landscape, comes in very useful when we want to learn to navigate the interior of our body, our inner landscape, and open our energy centres (chakras/sephira etc).
Like a new city at night, navigating inside our body requires some poise to get around comfortably. If we race around, we will never see the street signs and get an idea of where we are. We’ll just zoom through, a bit like going to the countryside to smell the flowers at 200 kilometres an hour. You tend to miss a lot that way, whereas if you stand still…there’s a whole world of possibilities that open for you.
The art of discovering the inner world of your energy centres lies in stillness. Simple meditations like watching the breath gradually train us to stay still and stop the mind from racing. However, when we’re consciously holding stillness rather than just allowing and experiencing it, it isn’t real stillness. We’re doing way too much when we’re busy and concentrating being still.
Developing this faculty of ease in stillness is the A, B, C of inner work. When we can be still in our centre, we can use our attention to locate energy centres in the body. This moving of attention across the inner landscape is like moving attention across an open field.
Simple ways to start navigating our inner landscape:
• Lightly scratch a small area about the size of a 5 cent coin on your forearm and feel it. Now move the feeling through to the other side of your arm. As energy follows mind – the feeling will follow your attention.• When you can do the exercise above and move the feeling– try scratching the top of your head and placing your attention there. When you can feel this – slowly move your attention along the inside of the spine down to your heart. Remember to enjoy and have fun while you do this. You are better off treating it as a silly game (which it sort of is) than anything seriously spiritual. People who try hard to do these practices – furrowing their brows with concentration – will do so with extreme difficulty and frustration, not to mention with zero results. Try being light and easy with your attention and you will have a better chance at success. When we’re happy and smiling our hearts are open and our feeling sense is enhanced. It is the genuine still attention without effort that holds the energy potential of opening. It is the genuine still attention without effort that holds the energy potential of opening. This means that if you can lightly put your attention on an energy centre, it will open automatically.
In the Chinese Taoist text, Secret of the Golden Flower, there is a description of meditation that goes, “You can achieve it by intent that is not willful.” This means, just use your open attention – don’t concentrate. This is the secret.
By Kevin Niv Farrow
Kevin is the Founder and Director of AcuEnergetics® as well as a Master AcuEnergetics® Practitioner and Teacher of AcuEnergetics®. Kevin has practised and studied meditation and the energetic system since 1974. He has taught since 2000 and his published writings, meditation CD’s and teachings have brought him worldwide recognition as a unique and practical meditation teacher and an expert in the field of energy medicine. He currently teaches in Australia, USA, India, Asia and Europe. For more information about Kevin, visit Kevin’s full biography.