Our lips and its inner substance seems to be carrying something precious that we can bring into deeper body work and healing. Long back there was a practitioner who used to do body work but had a challenge of getting distracted by thoughts. One day when she was in practice, the deeper body work was going on very good and she said in-between that she was getting distracted due to thoughts. There was a sudden intuition where the attention was brought to her lips. This intuition happened twice or thrice. And then she was told to bring her attention to her lips and connect her lips to her mind region, and leave it open to the Vastness above head. In a few minutes she became very calm and reported that the noise in her mind became calm and she accessed silence. All she did was to move her awareness and breath within her lips and kept it connected to her mind and also above her head. We have tested this practice in several retreats of ours and the same experience has been unfolding for many.
Before we explore more into this aspect of our lip and its healing for our body, let us examine the act of kissing. The lips have an inner substance. The act of giving a kiss is very different from the act of kissing as a sexual interchange. A kiss offered to a child, spouse, family member or a friend can actually be healing. The substance present within lips seems to have this capacity. For a kiss to be healing it should be done in a non-stimulative manner. When we deeply study the movement of a kiss, it is a master condensing and letting go movement. When we kiss there is a natural condensing of substance in both the giver and receiver. Then there is a natural let go which is an expansion of inner substance both for the giver and receiver. This kiss offered need not be with touch alone. Even a flying kiss or even a close connect with another human, without any physical contact has this aspect of a condensation subtle touch and a let go or expansion movement.
Let us take this insight and explore inner healing with our own lips. We can connect to the substance of matter within our lip. We can do this with our eyes closed or open and feel into the mass and soft substance within the lip. We can do our regular practices like be with our natural breath or connect our lips to the Divine or Consciousness above our head. With the substance of our lip and movement of condensation and expansion we can kiss each part of our body and its substance from head to toe. This can be done with eyes closed and eyes open.
Let us give an experiential description again. We keep our awareness within our lips. We can be with our breath and connect the lips to Consciousness above head. We should be feeling the inner substance of our lips. This will often open up a sense of joy or a feeling of light or subtle substance within our lips. Now from or with our lips we focus say on our head region. It is almost like with our lips we touch the substance of our head and kiss it. This will be like condensing the subtle substance of our head – not the physical actual head but the inner matter of head with is more pliable. We then let go but our lips is still in contact with our head. The letting go is natural expansion. We can do this once or twice and then travel through all parts of our body in this manner.
The same practice we have been doing with our awareness before. We take our awareness to different parts of our body. We condense and let go the part and connect the part of our body to Qualities present above our head. The same we are doing with our lips now. It is the substance of our lips which is doing the process for each part of our body. The lips seems to have some unique advantages. The substance within our lip can sense very deeply into substance of other parts, condense and expand and heal deep tissues. So we can kiss our inner substance of all parts of our body with the substance of our lips. Also the substance of our lips does not absorb entanglements. It seems to be able to be untouched more naturally, especially when we keep our lips linked to Divine above during this Sadhana.
Doing this process with our lips also seems to be giving a heightened sensing. For example when the lips are working on a pain area on our right shoulder blade, soon the pathway of pain can clearly show up. For example you may see a interlinkage to a specific point inside a jaw bone or tooth and which extends to a point in the right ear. We can gently allow our lips to continue the practice in the path shown until the point in the right ear.
Each part of our body that we are working on with our lips, it is good to keep that part of the body relaxed and soft. This helps the process to unfold beautifully.
A lips that is constantly chanting a chosen mantra or the primordial sound AUM has a greater capacity to heal in this manner.
You can also kiss the subtle substance of Divine Masters in a very humble and sacred way. Thus in a state of intimate union with our Divine or Divine Master, we receive Their sacred subtle substance within us, as much as Grace bestows upon us and as much as our body has the capacity to receive.
Keeping our lips with a mantra, offered to Divine above and connecting to each and every cell of our body and condensing and expanding it and connecting each cell to Divine above is this Sadhana process that is unfolding.
This is a practice that a mother or a father to be or both can do for the child in womb. The pre-conditions are that the couple or at least one of them are already in daily inner practice. That gives them the capacity to do this practice gently and lovingly for the child in the womb.
When the child is conceived and is in the womb the mother has nine months of nourishing time. All that she feels, thinks and experiences is a direct transfer to the child’s being, conscious and unconsciousness. All inner practices she does including her meditations, healing, chanting, joyful walks and the like, those vibrations permeate within the womb of the child. The child soaks in these nourishing vibrations.
Today we are going to share some very subtle, simple and profound practices that the mother and / or father to be can do for the child in womb. Now the true depth of the practice the couple transfers within the child, depends on their own individual sadhana. This they can separately build up and to that extent they can do this practice for the child.
Guidelines:
This can be done by the mother to be or father to be or both together as a couple.
First you do some practice to become as neutral as possible. For example, be with your natural breath for a few minutes. Or do any of the practices that connects you to the Divine or Higher Consciousness, for example connecting above head, cave of heart, vastness surround or sacred below. Only when you as a mother or as a father or couple feel more neutral, centered and connected to a Higher / Divine consciousness should you begin this practice.
Place your hand on the womb of the mother to be. Now any of the inner practices you do you can place your attention within the body and being of the child and do it there within the child for a very short time. It would be easy for the mother to do as anyway she would feel the child very intimately. The father needs to learn to be neutral and extend his awareness in a neutral way to touch the inner being of the child and wait. Then you would sense the inner body and being of the child and then you can do this inner practice. Some examples are shared below as illustrations.
Connect your breath to the child within the womb of the mother. There is no ‘how to’ for this and neither is it imagination. With a certain extension of your awareness you place your natural breath as it is now within the child in womb. For about thirty to sixty seconds breathe with the child and connect the child to the above, that represents Divine Consciousness and let go.
Another practice can be to take your subtle awareness and connect to the child’s body and being. Remember to keep an attitude of lovingness and an extraordinary good will for a beautiful soul to birth its full potentials with the Grace of Divine and come as a child into this world. And then connect the child to the domain above. Feel some quality that you regularly feel in the above like vastness, quietness, potent nothing-ness, beautiful being-ness, light-filled-ness, spread out joy-ness and a space made of love. Feel one of these qualities present in the above this moment and connect it to the child’s body or being. Do this for a minute or two.
Another practice can be to connect to the child in a similar manner and take your awareness in a neutral and loving way within the child’s heart to their heart’s cave. The mother or father to be can often hear or feel the heartbeat of the child. There a bit deeper you can pause for a few minutes and simply bow down to that space within the child’s deeper heart. Hold the attitude that you are meeting the Divine Being of the child in the womb, within her or his cave of heart. Bow down and offer one or two AUM chants and offer the space to the Divine. Care should be taken that you are doing this in a neutral way and not adding your individual agendas or goals for the child. No ‘masala’ should be added by us. Simply we should bow down to the cave of heart of the child in womb and simply we connect that space to the Divine. We can also close the practice by connecting the cave of the heart of child in womb to the Divine consciousness above. This whole practice can be done in about two or three minutes. When the baby is in womb the intensity of practice should be relaxed and calm. That is why just a few minutes of practice would be sufficient.
On this 21st February 2025, the birthday of The Mother, the Divine Body project offers ‘Mantra Mala’. Two of our facilitators will anchor the session. We will be offering mantra chanting alongside deeper body work. These mantras will be offered at the feet of The Mother, Above our head, within Cave of our heart and also in the depth of our body’s substance.
When you click on join zoom meeting and input ID or when you click this registration link, a tiny registration of your name, email id and whats app number will be there. When you complete that, to your email id the zoom link will be sent. This will reach your inbox. If not, check in your notifications folder. Using this link you can join the session.
We invite you to attend the full session. However if you are free only for a portion of the time you are most welcome to join too. Please sit in front of your sacred altar for this practice. Please keep a lamp lit if possible. Please keep your mike OFF all the time and simply soak into the space that unfolds.
We look forward to offer our best to The Mother. Look forward.
“Your faith in the sound body needs to be far higher than your individual experiences.”
This line emerged as a practice in one of our Substance of Love workshop session. Let’s explore this deeper.
With our awareness, breath and consciousness when we are doing a practice there could be at least these three phenomenon that are present.
There is something that will be happening in our inner experience. Let us take inner experiences as layer 1. Our inner experience includes our thoughts, emotions, sensations, memory imprints and the like. Through our practice something could get triggered in our inner experience. It could be positive or negative. If people are only focussing here they make errors in discernment of their practice. For example due to a good practice (say someone is chanting within their body) some limiting dark energy gets released from within, they could get scared and stop the practice. This is a great opportunity for healing or transformation lost.
This brings us to another layer of experience. When we truly practice, something opens up like a higher vibration or state of being. Let us take this as layer 2. For example we could experience wave like consciousness around us, or connection to vastness or a state of peace and silence, or an automatic state of joy / bliss or an heightened sense of calmness / aliveness / alertness and the like. We may experience this within us or around us or above us or below our feet. Another example of layer 2 is going and sitting near Samadhi, or Matrimandir or walking in a pure & beautiful space in nature. In all these cases if we truly connect to the Master or Nature or Divine then layer 2 is enhanced within us or around us or above us or below us. Or for example you are chanting or reading Lalita Sahasranama, a profound invocation of the many qualities of the Divine Goddess. If we read or chant it mechanically nothing happens. But if we connect to the names, sounds and almost become united with the chant, a certain state of Presence forms even in the room where we are doing the practice. All these are examples of layer 2.
When we do our inner practices layer 2 is what we need to focus on to detect if we are opening up to something good. If our point of reference is reactions of layer 1 which is our individual experience, it could lead to confusions. For example let us say we feel some wave like vast and floating feeling all around us. This is an example of layer 2. However it could be new to us or through associative memory it could trigger some images internally and we could be filled with fear. This fearful inner experience (layer 1) of fear is a reaction to a beautiful experience unfolding in layer 2. We perhaps are not used to it or may not have the capacity to bear it. Once we are able to discern our layer 2 and we sense something good unfolding then we can relax and open the very same inner experience which is shrinking to the quality or state or vibration of vast and floating waves and allow for transformation. Now if we have developed right understanding or capacity to hold these experiences then our inner experience would also be a state of gladness for a beautiful state unfolding in layer 2.
Layer 2 is actually impersonal. It is in the domain of universal, cosmic or Divine. An extension of Layer 1 will be the inter-subjective space. This is the space of how our inner experiences interfaces with others and triggers and gets triggered by others. This too we take it as an extension of our inner experience. Layer 2 is truly the domain of Higher or Divine Consciousness acting on us. When we do our inner practice and layer 2 builds up and we connect it to our layer 1, it leads to individual healing or transformation.
But yet in body work we need to learn to go beyond our individual experiences and personal healing.
The layer 3 is a domain within our body, but free and beneath our individual and inter-subjective experiences. For example it is the pure substance at the depth of every cell. In a way of speaking it is Pure vibrations of layer 2 (higher consciousness) that lives as layer 3 within our body. This pure substance is self-lit, radiant, joyful and is love.
With this background let us enter into an exploration of Sound. The domain of sounds exists everywhere in layer 1,2 and 3.
Let us take a part of a quote from the Page 224 of the book Sri Saundarya Lahari by Swami Satyasangananda Saraswati:
“According to the agamas, Shakti in her purest form before mingling with matter has nine manifestations, which are the atma of the universe, as they percolate into each and every form of creation. The nine manifestations are: i) matrika, the energy residing in sound, ii) kula, lineage, iii) nama, form, iv) jnana, knowledge, v) chitta, individual consciousness, vi) nada, the varying frequencies of sound, vii) bindu, nucleus, viii) kaala, time, and ix) jiva or atman, the self who enjoys.”
Opening to the Grace, Love, Force and Light of the Shakti is layer 2. She exists. We open ourselves humbly, in a receptive posture. Now if we take the first aspect of matrika alone for this exploration, there is a Higher Energy that resides in sound that enters into matter and our body and being. This is happening in each moment, in the present. We may not be aware. With faith as we may not have ‘heard’ or received Her, we bow down to Her as sound. All our sound practices like ‘AUM’, which is a primordial sound is in a way a part of this. Now we can chant AUM within us and it would land within our inner experiences. If we can concentrate on the sound vibration of AUM and repeat it within us it supports in the healing of our inner experiences. The same AUM can be chanted within the substance of our body and its depths. Now if we can consciously repeat this sound, its vibration and presence starts to stand on its own. The AUM is an ancient chant which has deep rooted higher aspiration, light and will to unite with Higher. If we keep repeating AUM consciously whenever we remember, hopefully we will come to a time when it is chanting on its own. We see this example in Mother’s Agenda where Her Cells were chanting Her mantra 24/7. The word ‘sound body’ has been coined to indicate a body’s substance with is filled with a primordial sound, bija mantra or another mantra that is rising within oneself with joy. Such a body can hold higher vibrations within in a steady state and by progressing offering of our individual experiences to the Influence of these sound vibrations combined with New Consciousness (present as layer 2) coming from Above, can be a body that is on the path to evolve into the next stage of human.
Now the sound vibration chant can be done within our individual experiences which provides personal healing or it can be chanted beneath our individual experiences. We can do it by aiming our focus beneath our individual experiences of thoughts, feelings and emotions. The experience of beneath our individual experiences, could be felt as space within our body or outside or as pure substance untouched by any of our history of experiences. Both this space and pure substance is in the domain of impersonal or universal, but felt as US. The individual sensations may not be here within this space or pure substance. However we can easily see the self-light or experience the self-joy or love that is there. The sound vibration can be chanted in this beyond individual experiences’ space or substance (layer 3). This builds a more firmer and more stable presence of Higher Qualities to be present within our depths and would cast their influence then on our individual experiences. This is what we are referring as a sound body.
Now in the beginning we may not be aware of the impersonal potent space or pure substance beneath our history of personal experiences. So when we do body work we may be focussed largely on clearing our individual experiences. This is great but this alone is not enough. We need to go to the Source. Here we are doing this through sound. So faith helps. Faith in Sound as Sakthi Herself. Faith that there is a layer pure beneath our personal experiences. Faith in our inner practice that even though we don’t know how to, we can still aim our awareness beneath our individual experiences and chant the AUM or bija mantras. And faith that Grace and Love will guide our path.
“Every time I offer incense or prostrate before the altar in my hermitage, I do not do this as an individual self but as a whole lineage. Whenever I walk, sit, eat, or practice calligraphy, I do so with the awareness that all my ancestors are within me in that moment. I am their continuation. Whatever I am doing, the energy of mindfulness enables me to do it as “us,” through interbeing, not as “me.” When I hold a calligraphy brush, I know I cannot remove my father from my hand. I know I cannot remove my mother or my ancestors from me. They are present in all my cells, in my gestures, in my capacity to draw a beautiful circle. Nor can I remove my spiritual teachers from my hand. They are there in the peace, concentration, and mindfulness I enjoy as I make the circle. We are all drawing the circle together.”
Thich Nhat Hanh, a Vietnamese Buddhist Zen master, poet, scholar, and peace activist who was nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize by Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Excerpted from The Art of Living.
Those of us who have followed works of Thich Nhat Hanh have deep regard for him. There are many tiny insights in his quote. We highlight them and invite all of us to explore how to bring them into our practices.
1.There is a certain aspect of deeper body work that goes beyond the individual and her/his healing. Entering this impersonal and universal dimension of body work, yet done deep in the cells of our body is fascinating.
2. To develop subtle awareness such that we are able to detect the interfacing-embedded thoughts, emotions, energies, sensations and currents within our body is sometimes painful in the beginning and yet it brings forth deep awareness and opportunities for clearing if we are in some deeper body work practice. Thich Nhat Hanh has used this term – “We do not exist independently. We inter-are.” It perhaps would help us to go beyond ego to acknowledge that lot of what we are experiencing in our cells is from our ancestors and people whom we have interacted with.
3. If we manage to do this practice mindfully we may observe in the small things, like the way we hold a cup of tea, the way we sip it, the way we walk, our body language, our voice, our facial expressions, the way we eat, what we eat, how do we respond to illness is all programmed into the cells of our body.
4. Now we come to the most fascinating insight. In the beautiful circle that is drawn through his hand through a brush, he notices the influence of his father, mother and ancestors. There is deep peace and acceptance beneath this experience. First is awareness of influence of others. And for most of us this could lead to irritation and annoyance. In this case we notice deep acceptance and through these ‘cells’ of his hand is drawn a beautiful circle.We can aspire to do our own practices of acceptance and memory work of releasing all stuck energies to come to a living and evolving acceptance of others influences in the way our body and cells are operating in the present.
5. Then comes the master clue. The influence of spiritual teachers on his hand is seen as peace, concentration and mindfulness. This opens up an insight in our deeper body work where we become aware of our body’s substance and its different points / cells. We then connect our body’s cells in a impersonal and universal way to our Divine or Master in an intimate way. Slowly we enter Their subtle body and subtle presence. If we can be in this state with eyes closed or eyes open, while meditating or while doing daily activities slowly the ‘Qualities’ present within the Divine or Master cast their presence within our body’s cells. This is Pran pratishthaof our body’s cells, an act of great humbleness and the underlying purpose of our existence of our life, beneath all other purposes.
