Arousal Going Straight to the Heart

[Jim and His Karma]

Interesting. Saw a movie tonight that was sexier than expected. And arousal went directly to my heart.

I'd had lots of experience with drawing arousal up my spine all the way to ajna (from years of Taoist practice and vajroli mudra). I've also had my heart and ajna spontaneously catch sexual energy overflow. In fact, it's happened more and more as my heart has opened and surrendered...it catches this energy quite easily. But this time, for the first time, sexual arousal took place entirely in the higher levels....no reaction at all in the usual area. But my heart was humming, and I could easily pass the hum to ajna and back.

I'm not currently working on tantra stuff; my fascination is just with meditation. Can anyone tell me if there a Tantra lesson on AYP that covers this sort of thing? I'm just curious.

[cosmic_troll]

Hi Jim,

I didn't see a Tantra lesson on this specifically, but there may be an applicable one there somewhere. Main lesson #228 deals with Opening the Heart, but it sounds like you maybe don't need it. You may want to read  the Tantra lessons, since you are dealing with sexual energy in some way.

Happy to hear about the shift you've experienced

[Jim and His Karma]

It's hard to say what's sexual energy and what's not. when it rises up, it's not really sexual. And "spiritual" energy, when in it heads south, can become sexual (a very few times in my practice, I get so charged up that the energy has nowhere to go but down, and I get aroused....I suck it back up and it goes back to feeling divine). So it's all sexual, and it's never REALLY sexual, and it changes flavors based on where it is!

Obviously, I don't totally understand the process, except in the most empirical way (I do know the Taoist explanation, but I've dropped that model for yoga). But when an attractive naked French woman is prancing around the movie screen and my heart (and nothing else) starts humming at high gear, I find that 1. interesting and 2. a huge huge relief. I mean,  that's so much better than having to patiently goad the energy upward! It's a brachmacharya's dream; I feel like I was granted a wish by the yoga genie. What I'm wondering, though, is what's next....

[Jim and His Karma]

Melissa, to speak more specifically to your posting, is this the first extended feeling of opening in the heart? If so.....don't sweat the palpitations, if there are any (opening of the heart is often accompanied by them and other sort of fluttery feelings...they go away), and also it's especially important to be consistent about practice so you don't remain at the awkward point where heart is opening and closing, unsure where to "stick". That can be uncomfortable.

If your heart's been open for a while, but you're finding that you're now LEADING with your heart (per my original posting), please keep reporting your results! I'm not entrenched in it yet; as with everything else in yoga, it's 3 steps forward and 2 back, and breakthroughs take time to integrate into being everyday things...

[yogani99]

Hi Jim:

Nice description of sexual energy expanding upward to become spiritual.

What's next? It is the ecstatic illumination of the heart/body/mind, and a marriage of that with inner silence, leading to an ongoing outpouring of divine love.

For an exploration of the possibilities, check the Secrets of Wilder. The unfoldment can vary from person to person, but the destination is the same.

Hint: As ecstatic conductivity advances, sambhavi becomes an increasing factor in stimulating sexual/spiritual energy.

The guru is in you.

[Jim and His Karma]

Thanks, Yogani

quote: Hint: As ecstatic conductivity advances, sambhavi becomes an increasing factor in stimulating sexual/spiritual energy

Yeah, I've felt that. As I lose myself more in the flow, the sambhavi goes further up. And like most things in yoga, 1. the reverse is true, as well (i.e., as sambhavi ascends, the surrender increases a smidge), and 2. if I try to force it, it doesn't work and can even hurt (so, warning: anyone pushing hard on sambhavi will be doing themselves a disservice.....bad self-pacing, etc).

Question, though. I'm habitually wrinkling my brow in sambhavi. I'ts giving me a wrinkle, actually (yikes! time to stop meditating! only kidding!). I try hard to avoid dividing my attention, but every once in a while I remind myself to spread my brow wide. Any other tips for this? It's so easy to pick up these little habits, complicating simple practices!

quote:What's next? It is the ecstatic illumination of the heart/body/mind, and a marriage of that with inner silence, leading to an ongoing outpouring of divine love.

I've felt, fwiw, that I've been (completely beyond my own doing or control) radiating heart energy since very early in this practice. Yet I'm clear about how far I am from the end game of yoga (there's a long list of ways in which I'm spiritually retarded). So I'm guessing this is just another facet of my being a bit reversed in my roadmap  - i.e. kundalini awakened before I'd cultivated much silence. In fact, that remainsa hurdle.  I'm still burning through muck I added on during my practice lapse, so my meditations are mostly energetic, with little of the silence I had previously been touching (though my breathing's reducing a lot, so there must be some silence there...I'm not always clear on how surrender and silence relate to each other). I'd love to really feel that calm silence...consciousness without an object...that I've only just touched a few times in my life. Sigh.

quote:
Hint: As ecstatic conductivity advances, sambhavi becomes an increasing factor in stimulating sexual/spiritual energy

I'm already on the brink of pitta overload (and therefore doing very few practices...not even meditating in siddhasana). Now I'm wondering if I ought to scale back in sambhavi, too?

Sorry this is so meandering!