Sleeping Baby Shiva with Awakened Third Eye
From the moment you open your eyes in the morning your attention is drawn to what is “out there.” The world is engaging, even compelling. The survival of this body and the idea of your self is defined by your relationship with the material world. So, it is not surprising that one of your most basic defaults is to identify with the body and your interactions with this world.
However, there is a fundamental flaw to this identification. The first, most obvious fact is this body can be damaged, and it will eventually die—we are on an ocean in a sinking ship that sooner or later will disappear under the waves. The second lie, this is not who or what we truly are. In fact, who we are is so much greater than the body and the world; those who have discovered this superior reality have sought to awaken us from what they say is a material dream-reality.
To uncover this greater reality is your spiritual journey, for this higher truth is what is called spirituality. To do this, you must open new ways of perceiving yourself and this world. Master taught us to focus on the spiritual eye, the point between the eyebrows. Since time immemorial, the spiritual eye has been known about and represented in art and lore. Spiritual scientists discovered that this third eye point is the doorway to the kingdom of heaven, and that by focusing on it you might open up this portal—you ascend into that kingdom and it’s Light descends into you. Then you realize that this world really is a dream-reality, and the kingdom of heaven is your real home, the truth of your being.
Through focusing on the third eye and watching the breath, you suddenly feel uplifted, attuned to something higher than ordinary daily experience—in deepened meditation and all through the day you keep this focus. You cultivate the idea and feeling that the things of this world are passing phenomena—you definitely live in this world, but with this perception you are not touched to the inner core of your Self by this changeable dream-reality.
All things are like the passing of the seasons. We have had a cool spring coming into summer, now we have sunshine and it feels good. But, the cool of the spring and the heat of summer are just passing events—you note them, but they do not define you. Sometimes the world says you are doing well, and sometimes it finds fault with you; these too do not touch your core, it is simply information and passing phenomena. This body alternates from the enjoyable to the miserable; more transitional bits of information. You live in your core, from the inside-out—instead of like your past life from the outside-in—outside-in is when you are defined by the body and its relationship to the world.
In the beginning you focus on the third eye and cultivate dispassion for the things of the body and the world. Then you get glimpses into the actual experience where you are aware of this greater reality. Then you pass through the jnani phase where the world is continuously perceived as a dream, and the inner reality is far more real. As body and mind are purified you gradually enter into the universal vision in which you are aware of the Divine Nature both within and without. Oh, what a transformation this is! In one sense your life is outwardly just the same, but inwardly you are transformed. Life still happens, all of its ups and downs, and the body will still one day decay and die, but you are inwardly free–you are now established in your true Home.