Category Archives: Red tantra

Mystical Poetry Celebration in Los Angeles . by Alice B. Clagett

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Written and published on 23 August 2014; revised

  • INTRODUCTION
    • What Is Mysticism?
  • WAYS TO EXPERIENCE MYSTICISM
    • Slowing the Mind
    • Concentrating on the Body Instead of the Mind
    • Extraordinary Sensory and Emotional Experiences
    • Bringing Up the Emotions of Gratitude, Appreciation, or Divine Love
  • EVERY MAJOR RELIGION HAS ITS MYSTICS
  • WHY IS MYSTICISM SO ALL-PERVADING?
    • The Mystical Mind
    • Mental Intelligence versus Universal Intelligence
  • SWARM BEHAVIOR
    • Could These Notions Be True?
  • PRAYER FOR MYSTIC INSPIRATION by Alice B. Clagett
  • SUGGESTED READING AND LISTENING
  • FOOTNOTES
  • MEDIA CREDITS – BACKGROUND MUSIC PLAYED DURING THE EVENT

Dear Ones,

INTRODUCTION

I just woke up thinking about a Mystical Poetry Celebration I facilitated at The Onion … http://sepulvedauu.org/ … in North Hills, Los Angeles, California, a few years ago. It somehow seemed relevant today, so here it is.

In love, light and joy,
I Am of the Stars

Image: Seagulls landing on a bridge in the blue sky, with white clouds … https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/736x/33/7d/4e/337d4ee83193a115c3b57fcb31228d16.jpg  ..

What is Mysticism?

Mysticism is immediate consciousness of the transcendent or ultimate reality.

WAYS TO EXPERIENCE MYSTICISM

Slowing the Mind

  • Meditation
  • Repeating a mantra (a sacred sound or word)
  • Gazing at a mandala (sacred art that induces a meditative state)

Concentrating on the Body Instead of the Mind

  • Dance, such as: Sufi whirling and Dances of Universal Peace (1)
  • Walking in a maze or labyrinth
  • Walking in a circle

Extraordinary Sensory and Emotional Experiences

  • Extreme pain, such as mortification of the flesh
  • White tantric yoga (kundalini risen, which I feel to be a good choice for many healthy, spiritual people)
  • Black tantric yoga (reverse kundalini, which I strongly advise against)
  • Red tantric yoga (sexual union in a sacred context)
  • Use of such psychoactive substances … LSD, peyote, etc (Caveat: This can cause ‘bad trips’ and contact with negative astral entities.)
  • Neurophysiologic disturbances … profound depression, schizophrenia, or stroke
  • Near-death-experience

Bringing Up the Emotions of Gratitude, Appreciation, or Divine Love

  • Affirmations of gratitude or appreciation – giving thanks
  • Heartfelt prayer, spirit-filled religious services,
  • Devotional chanting (bhakti yoga)
  • Spiritual music, hymns
  • Reading mystical poetry

— adapted from Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 3.0 Unported

EVERY MAJOR RELIGION HAS ITS MYSTICS

These are just a few examples:

  • Christianity and Sufism … “God Is Love”
  • Kabbalah … Judaism … “… To love the LORD your God, to walk in all his ways, and to cleave unto him …” –Deuteronomy 11: 22 (KJV, public domain) … This is devekut, or communion with God
  • Hinduism … “Atman is Brahman” (i.e., the individual Soul is the cosmic Soul)
  • American Sikhism, quote by Yogi Bhajan on the oneness of a person with God:
    Link: “God and Me, Me and God Are One,” mantra, downloads, and CDs, at SpiritVoyage,  https://www.spiritvoyage.com/mantra/god-and-me,-me-and-god,-are-one/man-000041.aspx ..
    This concept is sometimes termed advaita, nonduality, or ‘God indwelling’ or ‘God immanent
  • Zen … haiku (short poems that can bring one to experience of the present moment) and koan (riddles that baffle the mind)

— adapted from Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 3.0 Unported

WHY IS MYSTICISM SO ALL-PERVADING?

The Mystical Mind

In 1999, Eugene d’Aquili and Andrew Newberg wrote a book in which they demonstrated that God is generated by and generates the brain (2,3) …

Citation: “The Mystical Mind: Probing the Biology of Religious Experience,” by Eugene d’Aquili and Andrew Newberg, 1999

If this is true, then it follows that the mystical experience is inherent in brain chemistry.

Now, the doubter in us might propose that any experience based on brain chemistry is suspect, might he not? But on what basis might he make that assumption? On the basis of sense perceptions?

Sense perceptions are also based on brain chemistry, and so, our doubter must posit, they are also suspect. More suspect, I might suppose, than the mystical experience, since many subjective interpretations may be put upon sense perceptions, and all mystical experiences are remarkably similar.

A person determined to experience ‘things as they are’ will find sense perceptions often mislead … they severely limit the data that come to us from the universe. What about the mystical experience? Could it be an experience of reality at the quantum physics level? At the level of the most basic subatomic particles?

If, in fact, the mystical experience holds greater scientific validity than sense perceptions, then the question becomes, how to have this mystical experience, how to experience reality as it is, and not through the filter of the senses.

Mental Intelligence versus Universal Intelligence

In autumn, starlings flock and dance together at nightfall in the skies above England and Scotland. These dancing clouds of starlings are called murmurations and their complex dance patterns, performed, as it seems, of ‘one mind’ are like aerial ballet in their precision.

In the video clip below, the starlings are the tiny black specks in the sky …

Video: “Murmuration” by Sophie Windsor Clive and Liberty Smith, Facebook: Islands and Rivers … https://vimeo.com/31158841 .. 

Why do they do it? How do they do it? It is not like they have been having practice sessions together. It is not like they are all that intelligent. Why do they not bump into each other in mid-air?

There is a theory that we have been looking at the starlings for intelligence, and we have been looking in the wrong place … intelligence is all around us … in the air …

Video: “Intelligent Air,” by conferencereport, 24 April 2009 … https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GoIIUB3irys ..

… or so the theory goes. We (birds, people) are the end-receptors, so to speak, of universal intelligence. (4)

All we have to do is open ourselves to it and let it in. What if we do not? Well, then we will be stuck with the limited intelligence stored in our personal minds. We will not get to stand in the doorway to unlimited intelligence, the doorway to All That Is. The key to that door is found through the practice of mysticism.

SWARM BEHAVIOR

Scientists call what the starlings do ‘swarm behavior’. Two-dimensional computer simulations have been made showing this behavior.

The second and last video clip is just such a computer simulation. As you watch this video, imagine that you yourself exist as points of light … in quantum physical terms, as a ‘swarm’ consisting of tiny bundles of subatomic energy. Imagine that the edges of the screen represent time and space …

Video: “Swarm Simulation,” by flight404 … https://vimeo.com/11704967 ..

What would happen if there were no edges on the screen of our minds? What would happen to the points of Light that represent our awareness?

Could These Notions Be True?

  • God is generated by and generates the brain.
  • The mystical experience is more valid than sense perceptions.
  • Unlimited intelligence pours into our limited human form from the air, from water, and some say, from the solar winds, from the Universe. As the song goes, “Love is in the air!” All we have to do is perceive it.
  • And finally: We exist as points of Light. Our awareness is compressed by our concept of time and space into a four-dimensional reality (length, width, breadth, and time). This time-and-space limitation is a mental concept only; not reality. What is reality, then?

Image: Hands of a man, holding water with a heart-shaped ripple in it …  https://files.constantcontact.com/37702b02301/dcc82d5d-a63e-4afd-b8f3-e8ae14ea07ab.jpg ..

PRAYER FOR MYSTIC INSPIRATION
by Alice B. Clagett

May the love that the great mystics felt
touch the hearts of each of us.
May each of us know the wisdom that they knew.
As we go about our lives, may that love and wisdom
touch and transform the hearts of all we meet.prayer

SUGGESTED READING AND LISTENING
(All can be purchased at www.Amazon.com )

  • Link: “A Gift of Love: Music Inspired by the Love Poems of Rumi,” by Deepak Chopra, 1998 …  https://itunes.apple.com/us/album/a-gift-of-love-music-inspired-by-the-love-poems-of-rumi/id2901840 ..
  • Citation: “A Year with Rumi: Daily Readings,” translations and commentary by Coleman Barks, published by Harper One, 2006
  • Citation: “The Gayan: Notes from the Unstruck Music,” by Hazrat Inayat Khan, Omega Publications, 2005
  • Citation: “For Love of the Dark One: Songs of Mirabai,” translations by Andrew Schelling, revised edition, Hohm Press, 1998 … The ‘dark one’ is Lord Krishna, whose skin color is traditionally depicted as blue.
  • Citation: “Thirst,” poems by Mary Oliver, Beacon Press, 2006
  • Citation: “The Lights of Penitence, the Moral Principles, Lights of Holiness, Essays, Letters, and Poems,” by Abraham Isaac Kook … His poems in the back of the book are quite good.
  • Citation: “God Makes the Rivers to Flow: An Anthology of the World’s Sacred Poetry and Prose,” compiled by Eknath Iswaren, 1982
  • Citation: “A Book of Psalms: Selected and Adapted from the Hebrew,” translated by Stephen Mitchell, 1993

FOOTNOTES

(1) Link: “Dances of Universal Peace are being led by Lakshmi Lambert in West LA,” Sivananda Yoga Vedanta Center … https://www.sivananda.org/la/DancesOfUniversalPeace.htm ..

(2)  A short book review by Tim Knepper, 2001, of the book “The Mystical Mind: Probing the Biology of Religious Experience,” by Eugene d’Aquili, Andrew B. Newberg, may be found here …

LInk: “Eugene d’Aquili; Andrew B. Newberg … ‘The Mystical Mind: Probing the Biology of Religious Experience,'” Review by Tim Knepper, 2001 … http://people.bu.edu/wwildman/relexp/reviews/review_daquili_newberg01.htm ..

(3)  By the way, in a book called “Why God Won’t Go Away: Brain Science and the Biology of Belief,” d’Aquili and Newberg … together with Vince Rause, spoke of incomplete ‘neurobiological transcendence’ as a possible cause of religious intolerance.

So, I gather, when the brain is working at optimum capacity, in a state of ‘neurobiological transcendence,’ religious bigotry will be a thing of the past. Here is the book …

Citation: “Why God Won’t Go Away: Brain Science and the Biology of Belief Paperback – March 26, 2002,” by Andrew Newberg (Author), Eugene D’Aquili (Author), & 1 more, in www.amazon.com .. 

(4)  Rupert Sheldrake has another way of explaining murmurations. He proposes that mind extends beyond the brain and is capable of connecting with everything else. See his long video talk:

Video: “The Mind Is Not the Brain, Matrix,” by Ifitallfails, Rupert Shaldrake, Consciousness, 19 September 2014 … https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QBc9_e60-7k ..

MEDIA CREDITS – BACKGROUND MUSIC PLAYED DURING THE EVENT

  • Link: “Himma,” a CD by the Sufi Music Ensemble. You can hear and purchase the CD at www.amazon.com … Here is the youtube video …
    Link: “Sufi Music Ensemble – Himma – 06 – Anatolia,” by IzzyREACTS, 28 December 2011 …      https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QzwxvAPHExQ ..
  • Link: “Harmony Within,” a CD by David Castle … http://celestialenergycenter.com/ .. David Castle, who transitioned in May 2019, was a  master healer, whose Celestial Energy Center, now under the care of his widow Anne K. Castle, is here in the San Fernando Valley.
  • Link: “Solace,” by Tom Kenyon … https://tomkenyon.com/store/solace ..

Image: Sunlight filtering through forest leaves … https://biancabibiri.files.wordpress.com/2011/04/picture152.jpg  ..

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mystical poetry, mysticism, murmuration, swarm behavior, prayers by Alice, prayers, meditation, mantra, mandala, sacred dance, labyrinth, maze, sacred walk, tantric yoga, psychoactive substances, hallucinogens, bad trips, near-death experiences, mystical poetry, bhakti yoga, devotional chanting, spirit-filled Christian religions, gratitude, appreciation, hymns, Hinduism, world religions, American Sikhism, Yogi Bhajan, Zen, haiku, Christianity, Sufism, Kabbalah, Judaism, Bible, Eugene d’Aquili, Andrew Newberg, mental intelligence, universal intelligence, Sophie Windsor Clive, Liberty Smith, Judaism, interfaith, Sikhism, advaita, nonduality, God indwelling, God immanent, The Onion, Los Angeles, quantum physics, murmuration,

Ways to Harmonize the Vital Body Will with That of the Divine . by Alice B. Clagett

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Filmed on 1 September 2013; published on 2 September 2013; transcribed on 24 July 2018

  • VIDEO BY ALICE
  • OUTLINE OF THE VIDEO
  • SUMMARY OF THE VIDEO
    • On Uniting the Vital Body Will with That of the Divine
      • Bhakti Yoga
      • Shiva Lingam
      • White Tantric Yoga
      • Red Tantric Yoga
      • Chanting While Walking
      • Chanting While Cooking, or Before Eating
      • Chanting Just Before and After Sleep

Dear Ones,

This video is about ways to harmonize the vital body will with that of the Divine … in other words, to divinize the vital body.

It is a codicil to this blog: Link: “Vital Body Will and Personal Integrity,” by Alice B. Clagett, filmed on 1 September 2013; published on 2 September 2013; transcribed on 24 July 2018 … https://wp.me/p2Rkym-6Fj .. After the video are an Outline, and an edited Summary …

VIDEO BY ALICE

OUTLINE OF THE VIDEO

  • Be aware of the vital body’s will.
  • Traditional and nontraditional methods of uniting the vital body’s will to that of the Divine
    • Bhakti yoga, as practiced in India, to worship the Divine as beloved; for instance, a man might worship the Divine in female form, and a woman might worship the Divine in male form.
    • In the Christian tradition, celibate men sometimes venerate the Virgin Mary … This is the Marian tradition. Nuns sometimes worship Christ as their noncorporeal spouse.
    • In India, there is the worship of shiva lingam … which is a way of respecting the vast creative power of the second chakra as Divine. This is a good idea, I feel, as the idea of sexuality has been so degraded in Western society. It’s good to realize that the chakra which holds sexuality in a social context also holds vast Creativity. One way to do this is to worship the shiva lingam. For instance, a stone can be placed on one’s altar, or a poster hung up with a shiva lingam on it. This is also respectful to the Earth.
    • Then there is White Tantric Yoga, in the Indian tradition. Although this is not a sexual practice, it does take advantage of the attraction between men and women. Through chanting sacred chants, it raises that attraction to a sacred level.
    • There is also Red Tantric Yoga, but I advise against this as dangerous. This is because the power of possessiveness of the second chakra is just too strong for most people. Hence all kinds of negative emotions, such as jealousy and anger, come into play.
    • I do recommend walking in nature and chanting at the same time. This is good exercise, the vital body loves it, and the use of the chant brings in the Divine.
    • This merging of the vital body and sacred chant could take place in any physical activity … such as cooking.
    • Eating might be thought of as communion, in the Christian tradition, if practiced with prayerful devotion.
    • Saying a little prayer right before and right after sleeping, will divinize the transition of awareness. That then divinizes sleep, something very important to the vital body.
    • So the general instruction is:
      • Listen to the vital body.
      • Do something that both you and the vital body can agree upon.
      • And bring in the Divine, either through a visualization, or through a chant.

SUMMARY OF THE VIDEO

This video is a codicil to this blog: Link: “Vital Body Will and Personal Integrity,” by Alice B. Clagett, transcribed 24 July 2018;  published on 2 September 2013 … https://wp.me/p2Rkym-6Fj ..

On Uniting the Vital Body Will with That of the Divine

I got to thinking about what methods we could use to unite the vital body will with the Will of the Divine, because that might be really important, coming up very important.

Aside from the idea of simply being aware, the first thing to do is to be aware of the vital body’s will, right? … What it wants. But we have already talked about that.

So then I got to thinking of traditional and nontraditional methods of uniting the vast creative force of the vital body with the Divine. And I came up with a few to consider, and no doubt you will come up with others. Here is my little, short list …

Bhakti Yoga, as practiced in India, to worship the Divine as Beloved. So if you are a man, you would worship the Divine as the Beloved Woman. And if you are a woman, you would worship the Divine as the Beloved Man.

And along those lines in the Christian tradition, sometimes celibate people … priests and nuns … will, in the case of men, focus on the Virgin Mary (that’s the Marian tradition) … and amongst nuns, lots of times they will worship Christ as their spouse. So that is the Christian way of approaching this Union, through Bhakti Yoga, that is so frequently used in India.

Shiva Lingam. And then, also from India, we have the worship of Shiva Lingam. And that is a way of respecting the vast, creative power of the second chakra as Divine. And I think it is a very good idea to find a stone, or get a stone, and put it on your altar … or maybe a poster, something like that.

The idea is, because the idea of sexuality has been so degraded in Western society, it is good to realize that that chakra which holds sexuality, in a social context, also holds vast creativity. And that one way to do it is to worship the Shiva Lingam. It is just a stone; you can put it on your altar. And it is great. It is also an act of respect for the Earth. Quartz is nice, because it has those crystals in it. But of course, there are all kinds.

White Tantric Yoga. So those are two, and then you have White Tantric Yoga, in the Indian tradition … which is not sexual, but it does take advantage of the attraction between men and women. And through chanting sacred chants, it raises this attraction to the sacred level.

Red Tantric Yoga. And let us see … I know there are more. [laughs] … You have Red Tantric, but I consider that to be a dangerous thing to do, because the power of possessiveness, right now, with the second chakra, is just too strong for most people. And all kinds of negative emotions come into play, like jealousy, and anger, and all kinds of things. Some people go for that, but I am thinking it is a ‘not right now’ kind of thing … or maybe even a ‘never’ kind of thing.

Chanting While Walking. And … let me think … Here is something along new lines: For a while we have been talking about walking in nature, and chanting a sacred chant at the same time. That is a good example. It is good exercise, the vital body loves it, and the use of the chant brings in the Divine.

And that precept could be used in any context where there is a vital body ‘like’ that you can agree with, mentally, you know? And you can bring in a sacred chant. Chanting is great, because it uses the physical body, and it expresses a Divine notion.

Chanting While Cooking, or Before Eating. So you could do chanting with almost any physical activity: You could associate it with cooking. You could think of eating as communion, in the Christian tradition.

Chanting Just Before and After Sleep. A good thing to do right before and after sleeping is a little prayer. And that divinizes sleep, something really necessary to the vital body.

And so, the notion is just: Listen to the vital body. Do something that both you and the vital body can agree upon. And bring in the Divine somehow. It could be a visualization; it could be a chant. I am trying to think of more things, but I cannot. But I bet you will! Talk to you later.

In love, light and joy,
I Am of the Stars
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